


of flowers & cigarettes

by spritzerr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Cute, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Flower Crowns, Fluff, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Smokes, Lance (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Making Out, Multi, Mutual Pining, Swearing, TW for car accident (chpt 7 & 8), TW for smoking (whole story), Tattoo Artist Keith (Voltron), Texan Keith (Voltron), i dunno how to texan i'm sorry, i think???, i worship him ngl, it just, it's just basically tattoo sessions, it's not only tattoo sessions anymore, lance works in the flower shop, later on!!!, my favorite tag is 'probably', my hand slipped, omg it's a 2018 rewrite, once again to state it clearly, probably, probably??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 56,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spritzerr/pseuds/spritzerr
Summary: Lance just wants a tattoo, Pidge’s family is against, Hunk is lovely and Keith is Texan and likes his job. Lance doesn’t understand but will befriend shit outta this cute tattoo artist.Oh, and Shiro likes dates better than working. Just so you know.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith/Lance (Voltron), implied probably
Comments: 8
Kudos: 96





	1. day 1: tattoo designing

**Author's Note:**

> first chapter of my tattoo au!! i'm hyped, because it's a rewrite of a thing (short and bad) i wrote back in the 2018, but i like this version so much!!
> 
> enjoy!!

“Lance, I thought I would never have to say it, but I fear I have to. You _are_ insane,” Pidge emphasized the last part of her statement, looking at her friend in awe.

She didn’t want to admit that Lance was stupid, because she really believed that he was not. Well, he had some troubles in college, later finding the perfect work that would suit him the most, but he was rather a smart person. Maybe not as smart as Pidge herself, but still pretty decent. But after he told his friends about his plans, Pidge really wanted to punch him in the face. She looked at Hunk, who didn’t seem even half as mad as her, but she secretly hoped that he was the same on the inside.

“I will _never_ let you do it to yourself!” She continued yelling at Lance, who didn’t seem bothered at all. He was trying not to glance at Pidge weirdly, but it was almost impossible to avoid. “Come on, do you even _know_ what the consequences are!? Lance, I love you like a brother, but this is _too much_!”

They were sitting in Hunk’s apartment, the one he was sharing with Lance earlier, when they were still in college. Lance got a job during his sophomore year and after he was done studying he managed to buy his own, small apartment, way too little, but he couldn’t complain about it. Hunk’s one was given to him by his parents, as they had it from Hunk’s grandparents. He was lucky that he didn’t have to make money to buy his own place, only to pay bills, which weren’t as high as he thought they would be. They were all sitting in the living room, Pidge originally with a glass of wine in her hand, but she had to place it back on the coffee table, because it would all spill as she was furiously gesturing all over her face.

“I didn’t take you for this type of guy!” She said, taking a sip of her wine after she calmed herself a bit. It was Lance’s decision after all, but who would he be if he didn’t listen to his beloved friends? They equaled his family, Pidge liked to believe they had their own place on Serrano’s family tree. It could be true, as she once or twice saw her and Hunk’s photos hung and standing on a few counters and cupboards. It only proved how close they were to Lance, so Pidge really wanted him to take a quick look at her opinion (or listen to it and choose it over his own, preferably).

“What the hell, Pidge?” He asked, almost laughing. He couldn’t believe anything she was trying to say, but he couldn’t lie – it was entertaining as hell. “You know I can’t cancel this.”

“Of course you can!” She shouted back, even though she was sitting not farther than a feet away from Lance. “It’s not like you paid anything, so you always can say no to this,” she explained, knowing that she was right on this particular issue. But Lance didn’t seem convinced, not even a little bit, more like annoyed.

“Pidge, let’s get through this once again,” he said calmly, knowing that arguing with her wouldn’t end well. She was still mad at him, without a reason, but it happened, so his duty was to calm her down to the point they could talk like decent human beings again. “It’s not like I’m going to be in the mafia, or something, because you make it sound like this. It’s only a tattoo, I’m not getting any plastic surgery or anything,” he laughed under his breath, imagining himself with these Kim Kardashian lips and butt. It looked stupid in his mind and he bet it would be even worse in real life. “And I scheduled this appointment over two months ago, I can’t just phone them and say I changed my mind!” Little did he know he would cause yet another one of Pidge’s outbursts. Her face flushed red as she angrily stood up and pointed her finger at Lance.

“What do you mean you scheduled it _two months ago_ !? What do you take me for, Lance? _How_ could you keep it a secret for two months? Me and Hunk here are _clearly_ disappointed with you!” She emphasized, though she was really the only one mad there. Hunk was constantly sipping on his beer and enjoying Pidge’s indictments. He would as well say something, but he didn’t really feel like being a part of this argument. He’d been in way too many already, since high school, which meant over ten years. Hunk just wanted peaceful adult years and Pidge didn’t want to give him those.

Lance didn’t answer her after that, because she was way too angry to deal with her anymore. He looked at Hunk, seeking for help he knew he wouldn’t get. Both of them were far too tired with Pidge’s yelling, though they still felt like it was interesting, seeing her changing moods every five seconds. Lance would’ve sworn she was on her period then, but asking would cause way too many other disadvantages.

“I can drink today, right?” He asked, mostly Hunk, but he didn’t mind if Pidge decided to answer him. “I know I can’t do it during sessions, but I won’t have one during the _tattoo designing_ , right? Hunk, I don’t know!” He whined, stealing his friend’s beer before he could even say a word.

“Yeah, I think you can, but get your own!” Hunk took his bottle back, handing Lance a new one instead. “But it’s not me you should be asking, more like the tattoo artist who would be tattooing you, right?” Hunk mindlessly rubbed his left forearm covered in a bunch of Hawaiian marks, done with black ink, which now looked more like dark gray, as Hunk had it tattooed when he started college. It was also colored, as a simple black tattoo ink wouldn’t be visible on his pretty dark brown skin. Lance had always adored it, especially the colors, as he could’ve sworn that every one of them was being visible there. It was truly awesome and pretty, because it had been done by the most famous tattoo artist in the city, Takashi Shirogane. Lance wanted to have his first tattoo done by him as well, but all of the dates had been already chosen and Lance didn’t feel like waiting half a year or more. Two months were enough, but he still couldn’t get over the fact that his tattoo artist’s name was Keith. Who the hell names their child like this? It was no longer eighties or some other older times, so Lance just couldn’t understand, no matter how hard he tried.

“Come on, Pidge!” He finally said, seeing his friend was calm enough to talk to her again. “What’s gonna happen actually? I’m working at the _flower shop_ , it’s not like they’re gonna fire me just because I’ve got a tattoo! Coran knows how great I am and I bet he wouldn’t want to lose an employee like this,” he gestured at himself, knowing that there’s no way Pidge could argue with him on that particular issue. Lance had an impossibly good way with flowers, also an irresistible charm nobody could ever say no to. He knew how marketing worked, what every customer wanted. Even when they didn’t know, Lance was going to convince them and sell the flowers, slowly blinking and using the magic of those blue eyes of his. “You know, I have no idea why you’re actually so against tattoos, mind explaining this to me?” He asked, knowing there _had to_ be something more than just ‘consequences’, because Pidge could be the last person there to talk about them.

“Fine,” she scoffed, placing an empty glass on the table. She took one, heavy breath before speaking up again. “My brother and mom both say I’m too young for a tattoo and I had _openly_ wanted it since I turned fifteen!” She whined, causing a sudden outburst of laughter from Lance. “No, wait! Before you say anything— Lance, for fuck’s sake, stop laughing! I can’t just go and do it! They’re my family, Lance and I choose to _respect_ their opinion!” She began yelling like crazy, trying to shush Lance by placing her palm over his mouth, but it still didn’t work. His laughter could be most likely heard a few floors away, but he didn’t care at all at that time. Pidge’s excuse was by far the most entertaining one he’d ever heard. Even better than Hunk saying he flushed his English homework in the toilet, when he forgot to bring it during their freshman year in high school.

“Should I take it as ‘I’m jealous of you, Lance!’ or something? Because it’s hella funny that way,” he answered, finally getting his voice back, still sounding harsh from all the laughing he’d experienced. “Don’t give me that face, Pidge! You can’t get mad at me for telling the truth! Besides, it’s neither my nor Hunk’s fault your family doesn’t allow you, but I still think it’s stupid. It’s your body and you should do whatever you wish, especially when you’re an adult now and nobody can decide, but _you_ ,” he took it seriously after a few minutes of laughing, because he loved Pidge after all, even if she was yelling at him for the past thirty minutes. She was clearly mad, even though she wanted to obey her family, it was still pissing her off. “Listen, I don’t know what’s your family’s problem, but Matt has a tattoo on his back, yeah, you can ask him, I saw. Also, as I said, they can go screw themselves— no, Jesus! I’m not trying to offend them, no! I’m just saying that it’s _your_ body, Pidge and you’re the only one who gets to decide what you’ll do with it. Wanna have a piercing, a tattoo? Just go and do it, because it’s your fucking body!” He emphasized at the end, taking the last sip of his beer. He knew that one was clearly enough, getting drunk right before the tattoo appointment wouldn’t help him make a decent first impression, and the last thing he wanted was to experience the impossibly awkward atmosphere for multiple tattoo sessions he was about to schedule. Also, he doubted that this Keith artist, whoever he was, wouldn’t be up to discussing anything with a clingy, almost blackout drunk Lance. More than that, he was sure that nobody would want to experience this. Hunk and Pidge had this not so pleasing opportunity a few times and they were swearing that they absolutely didn’t want to go through this again.

“What time is it?” Lance asked, too bothered with _everything_ to just take a quick look at his phone. But, it really wasn’t like he was lazy or something, his phone was probably shoved somewhere in his bag and looking for it would take too much time. His bag was just like these stereotypical women’s ones, as he had absolutely everything in it. He knew as well that Pidge always had her phone around. If it wasn’t in her hand then it could be easily found on the table or in one pocket of her jeans or sweatpants, whatever she was wearing that day. “Oh, come on, Pidge! I don’t want to look for mine and I know you have yours!” He tried to encourage her, but then he thought about something far better, something he knew Pidge wouldn’t resist. “I can try and ask this tattoo artist guy if he’d be willing to tattoo you! Maybe, when he sees my _charm_ , he will immediately agree!” Lance was nothing less than sure that his plan was perfect enough to succeed. Hey, he was Lance Serrano, he was never failing, especially in such an important task like this one. Maybe he was bragging a little bit, but he did all of that for Pidge, as she was his very best friend, along with Hunk and he would do absolutely anything for them.

“Fine, it’s half past one,” she decided to give him the satisfaction, but instead of thanking and being his weird self, Lance began moving furiously, gesturing like a mad man. That was the reaction Pidge absolutely did _not_ expect. Lance had always been… unusual, but it wasn’t anything serious. He was just louder than anyone else, but his friends didn’t actually take it as a bad thing. But then everything became far away from what they had been used to before. “Man, what the hell is wrong with you?” She asked after a solid minute of watching Lance moving his hands around like crazy. It was actually one of his biggest quirks: to go from a super chilled and calmed persona to a living, running mess nobody was able to control in _seconds_ , just what happened then.

“I have an appointment in half an hour and the tattoo shop is on the other side of the city!” He cried out, desperately trying to collect all of his things from the living room. “Dios Mio, fucking shitty fuck,” he was whisper yelling all the causes he could think of, moving around the whole apartment and trying to find his public transport card, but of course, it must have been lost somewhere just when he needed it the most. “Help me, please, just— fuck, I can’t just _yeet_ the door open and enter like I do it every fucking day!” His cursing only got more and more intense with each second, like he was becoming a completely different person. But when he heard Pidge laughing, he theatrically turned on his heel to face her. “What’s so funny, Pidgeon?”

“I’m Lance ‘I _yeet_ the door open on a daily manner' Serrano,” she choked out, amused with her own joke. “I think you’re forgetting one of the main things right now,” she added, ruffling her own hair slightly. She was getting used to it being longer than to her chin and she still hadn’t managed to style it properly. It was getting ridiculously curly at the ends.

“Can you not talk in some weirdly coded way?” Lance scoffed at her, feeling his annoyance increasing second by second. He finally found his phone and the ticket, but getting through the public transport in the early afternoon wasn’t a thing Lance had been fond of. “Girl, what the fuck am I missing? I know everything: I almost lost my ticket, I will be most likely late for my appointment and my friend is laughing at me without a reason!” He yelled at her, but she didn’t seem to be offended at all. Instead, Pidge wheezed in a funny way, trying not to lose her breath from all the laughing.

“Look, you don’t actually have to drag yourself all over the city in _public transport._ Hunk’s got a car, can’t believe you forgot about it, and he can surely drop you to this tattoo shop, or wherever you’re heading,” she explained, immediately followed by Lance’s loud gasp. He really began to believe in how stupid he actually was, though he would never admit it out loud.

“And you’re only telling me about it _now_ !? When I literally lost another ten minutes!” He whined louder than he thought he would, grabbing Hunk’s keys from the counter. “Come on, we’re going!” He was currently thanking whoever was there ruling the world for the fact that Hunk had been drinking the non-alcoholic beer all the time. Lance would be literally _fucked_ if it wasn’t for Hunk.

They got in the car relatively quickly, with Pidge cursing at her friends to slow down a little, because her small frame wasn’t able to fully catch up with them. She also blamed Hunk for living in the apartment located in this weird block, which had nine floors and _no_ elevator, and Hunk lived on the seventh one. It wasn’t the worst, but man, getting up there after a full day of work must’ve been a literal hell. She couldn’t manage to climb the stairs when she was overly energetic, so she didn’t even want to imagine how it was like when you were tired. Hunk never actually complained about it, but she could’ve sworn that he was cursing this place when no one was around. It was just impossible to live here and actually enjoy it. If anyone did this, Pidge was sure that they were insane, more than Lance and his sleeve tattoo fantasies.

“Okay, here,” Lance said, quickly tapping the address into his phone’s maps and placing it in the holder Hunk had near the window. “Jesus, why does the universe hate me _now_? Okay, you’ve gotta somehow make it through the accident, I don’t know, drive around it, I don’t care. I need to be there in fifteen minutes, hope you make it, buddy,” Lance knew he was becoming hella bossy, but it happened every time he was getting more than stressed over the things he could do nothing about. Well, technically, he could think about checking the time earlier, but he was an adult, a pretty tired one, as well. But still, he didn’t want his first impression to be ‘the guy who couldn’t make it on time and probably delayed all the future appointments of every client of the studio’, something rather close to this.

Hunk didn’t even argue with him, knowing it won’t make things any better. He started the car, praying for the traffic to be at least bearable. He really didn’t ask for more, but for Lance, especially this — stressed to the death Lance, he could do anything, even if it included making an extreme fool of himself. Hunk knew how to sacrifice himself for his friends, but that didn’t mean that they did nothing in return. Both Lance and Pidge had been sacrificing themselves for Hunk since high school, especially when he blew up the cafeteria. It was his first incident of any kind and they knew how scared he was of the principal, so they both decided to cover for him and just say it was their fault. Not to mention, they weren’t the nicest students if it came to behavior, so nobody was arguing when they said it was them.

But still, the journey through the city had gone absolutely awful. The accident caused way more traffic than Hunk had ever thought possible. There was literally no way to bypass it, at least not until he reached the center of the city. But by that time it was already two minutes before one and Hunk knew they were more than unable to make it in time. Still, he didn’t feel like telling Lance that, since he managed to calm himself down a little bit. Hunk didn’t want him to break anything in the car, as he _definitely_ couldn’t afford to repair it. Hunk thought that the city they were living in wasn’t actually _that_ big, it couldn’t be, but turned out he was horribly wrong.

“Are we close?” Lance asked in the middle of a small yawn. His eyelids were half closed as he was desperately fighting an urge to sleep. Another thing he couldn’t do — fall asleep now, because he knew he would look bad, sound bad, feel bad, just _be_ bad in general. He didn’t bother looking at the clock, believing that he still had plenty of time, even if he knew, somewhere deep in his mind, that it wasn’t true at all. “Come one, we’ve got to be close!” He had an attempt to shout this one statement, but he failed miserably.

Yet, Lance was right. They were close to the shop, maybe two miles away, not more, but the time was about fifteen minutes too late. Hunk was constantly glancing at the clock, currently telling him that it was seventeen past two, meaning Lance had passed the acceptable amount of time of being late. Hunk was now driving in silence, not even hearing the radio playing some randomly chosen song nobody really liked. He knew Lance was more likely going to kill him for delaying everything, but it was no Hunk’s fault. The Universe just wasn’t doing them any favor and no matter how much they all wanted to change it, there was nothing they could do about it.

“Hunk! Hunk, it’s here,” Lance pointed at the small building they had just passed by. It was extremely tiny, with a big (almost as big as the wall) window that showed the lobby and a little hallway that led to some rooms, as far as Lance could see from the car. Then, he glanced at the clock and made this weird, half gasping, half yelling sound, trying to catch some air as he almost choked on his own saliva. “Hunk, I love you, but _why_ didn’t you tell me that we’re running late!? I don’t know if we even can call this being _late_ , to be honest. It’s like… half of my appointment is probably now going away, because _someone_ ,” he looked at Pidge, indictment in his eyes. “Forgot to tell me what time it is! Come on, what will they all think about me—” he got immediately cut by Pidge, who didn’t think that anything here was by any means her fault.

“Maybe if you weren’t talking so much right now, your delay wouldn’t be as big as it is, because instead of actually going inside and apologizing, you’re stuck here screaming like it would help you in any way,” she slightly laughed seeing Lance’s eyes widen even more than they already were. Then he literally jumped out of the said car, rushing to the door as he left his friends a little confused, unsure whether they should stop him from doing something stupid or just watch him and laugh as he smashed the door open and entered the shop.

“Looks like he really _yeeted_ the door,” Pidge said, unintentionally whispering, even though she knew it was impossible for Lance to hear anything.

Speaking of him, he felt genuinely _bad_ about what happened. As he stood by the door, it wasn’t long — only about five seconds, his brain was making up the endless amount of scenarios. He was trying to think about the best way to apologize, because he really didn’t know what to expect. He _knew_ meeting with his friends was a really, really bad idea since it had always been turning out with Lance completely losing track of time. It felt like minutes, half an hour at best, but in reality they could be talking for hours and completely don’t realize it. He really wanted to know why he kept dozing off like this, but at that time it didn’t matter anymore. He just had to enter the place and be his completely casual, unbothered self, because, hey, nothing bad happened, right?

After opening the door, all the thoughts left. It was weird, like Lance’s brain had become completely empty, he didn’t even know how to think back then. He looked around the place he’d just entered, mesmerized by the whole impression of it. The walls were dark, almost black, Lance saw them as dark gray. He could see tattoo artists’ projects hung all over the place, lit up by very stirring, a little warmer than what Lance was used to, but it gave him calm vibes and he loved it. There was also this white haired girl sitting by a small, wooden desk. Lance would be lying if he said she wasn’t pretty, because — damn — she was _gorgeous_. Lance would also most likely try to flirt with her and impress her a bit, but not when he was wheezing like crazy and staying right by the door, looking around and wishing his artist hadn’t already had another appointment going.

“Good afternoon,” the girl said, heavily British accent in her voice. Lance could hear her smiling, but his vision was blurry and he didn’t even bother looking at her. Instead, he just tried to get his breath back, when the girl began speaking again. “You must be Lance, right? You’re late, but you probably know that already. You’re lucky we don’t have any appointments in four hours, because — otherwise — your delay would mean that you wouldn’t get to meet Keith today,” she was talking about it like he was the most important and famous person there. Lance couldn’t judge, because he knew nothing about this studio, at least not more than what someone told him on the phone and what he read on the web page.

“That’s me,” he finally said, more like, breathed out rather weirdly and came closer to the desk. “I’m sorry about the delay, it wasn’t, well, it was my fault at some point, but not quite— there was this traffic, accident in the city center and I couldn’t make it fas—” he got brutally interrupted by someone’s harsh voice appearing from the hallway and becoming louder and louder each second.

“You told me you’ll be there! How the fuck— No, Shiro, a date is _not_ an acceptable excuse! Yes, _yes_ , I know it was supposed to be your day off, but you _promised_ to help me! You needa stop foolin’ me like this, Christ, Shiro! I swear, if ya hang u—” whoever he was talking to decided to hang up right when he entered the lobby, still cursing heavily and gesturing his hands, similar to what Lance did whenever he was arguing with someone. Still, Lance couldn’t help but laugh quietly about the man’s funny accent, even funnier than this girl’s. “Who’s that, ‘llura?” He asked her, quickly glancing at Lance, who stood there not knowing a single shit about what was going on.

“Your appointment,” she answered, surprised by the fact that he forgot about it. Things like this didn’t happen before. “I thought you remembered about that one,” she added, noting the fact that it was one of his _two_ appointments, which really wasn’t much according to ten he had on the usual day.

“I would’ve, if Shiro was here! This fuckin’ bas—” he stopped mid-sentence as Allura glanced at him warningly. He knew she doesn’t really accept swearing, but she also knew Shiro (he was her school friend) and it was obvious that Keith couldn’t keep his mouth clean while talking about him. “Nevermind, let’s go. You’re late, another reason why I’d forget ‘bout it,” Lance shrugged, getting reminded about his mistake _once again._ He was wondering how many times they would bring this up. He knew he messed up, but it wasn’t this bad to keep him constantly thinking about it. “You comin’?” The guy, Keith, asked Lance, who now realized that he was still standing in place instead of following the artist to one of the rooms in the hallway.

Lance looked around, trying to reach to everything before they both disappeared by the door. This place was awesome, tiny, but truly mesmerizing. Lance couldn’t remember who recommended this studio to him, but he was more than glad that he listened to that person.

“Time for ‘em introductions, right?” Keith said, talking faster than what Lance’s brain could handle. He didn’t know if that guy was always like this, but if that was true, then he was about to have a huge problem. “’m Keith, ’boutta be your tattoo artist, if I’m correct. You were late, but that’s not any bad thing, though. I was, too, ‘cause my brother decided he’s not gonna come’n help me out there,” he explained, taking a seat on the red leather sofa. He took his hoodie off and Lance had now realized how many tattoos this guy had. His whole shoulders were covered in roses and weird markings, going up to his neck. His forearms, instead, were all in black ink, but it looked absolutely awesome. His legs, exposed because he was wearing shorts, were literally a sketchbook. He had everything there, but somehow all the symbols were balanced out perfectly. Lance knew he was staring, but what was wrong with that? He just admired this guy’s work, it wasn’t weird or anything.

“I saw how you were lookin’ at Allura,” Keith spoke up once again, looking at Lance who was _again_ , still standing instead of sitting down like any other person would. “She’s quite a looker, even for me,” Lance didn’t know what was up with the guy and his strange language, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy to talk to him.

“Quite a _who_?” He asked, visibly confused. He was there for designing his tattoo, not trying to understand his artist who seemed to be talking in some kind of foreign language, even if Lance was one hundred percent sure that it had to be English at some point.

“A _looker,_ ” Keith repeated, unaware of the fact that he kept using his home state’s slang. “Oh, oh my God!” He laughed, amused by Lance’s weird expression. “Y’know no Texan, right? I was sayin’ Allura’s pretty attractive,” he explained, trying to keep this small talk ongoing before they actually get to start the designing. Keith could tell that Lance would be oddly specific in what he would want to have just from looking at him.

“She is, I guess? But I was trying not to embarrass myself more, so I didn’t really pay this much attention,” then he reached for his bag and grabbed the papers he was told to bring when he’d get there. “Here, my medical stuff, examinations and shit and an agreement I was told to sign,” he handed them all to Keith, who carefully grabbed them and placed in the green binder labeled as “Lance Serrano”, probably given to him by Allura, who was doing all the paperwork there. “I’m really sorry I was late, I thought I’d manage,” he decided to excuse himself, this time in front of Keith only, showing that he really cared about this appointment.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ve been fixin’ to come earlier, but didn’t manage either, so it’s rather good ya came later than told to, didn’t have to wait for me. Nevermind, let’s get to designin’,” he pulled out another binder, a thick one, like a portfolio but not digital, because Keith liked to have his designs around whenever he needed to show them to someone. “I’ve got some here, you can choose, but if you’d like I can design somethin’ personal.”

“I think… I’d go with this, well, particularly,” he pointed at the red roses and simple geometric background behind them. “But if you could do roses in blue? I don’t think this crimson would suit me. Also, yeah, there aren’t any naturally blue roses, actually, I know, I work at the flower shop. But it would still be nice to have them, since blue is like, my favorite color, I guess? Also, if you could… like, I have no idea how to describe it. Okay, if you could transfer them from actual roses to these simple, geometric shaped ones, like there!” He pointed at another one of Keith’s drawings. It had a lot of geometric, really simple looking flowers, only the black outlines. Lance found them extremely pretty, and the idea of combining them with these detailed roses seemed like an incredible idea. He had some sense of art things since he’d been working in the flower shop and _had to_ know how to compose everything right.

“‘course I can. I’mma sketch it out for ya, okay? Want me to talk a bit ‘bout the studio? Guess it’s better to hear it all while bein’ there,” right after Keith said that, Lance nodded vigorously and just stared at Keith as he pulled out the paper and began drawing the design for him. “Okay, this studio’s actually a collab between me and my brother, Shiro. We’re kinda famous in tha’ city, I even got some award, but I dunno if I deserve. Nevermind, just so ya know, these tattoos are all my work, except shoulders and neck, which’re Shiro’s, that’s why they look different. You’ve most likely seen some of our works over yonder, in the hallway and a lobby. Yeah, getting to the important stuff you’d wanna hear — we sterilize all of our stuff every five minutes, you’ll see when we get started. Yeah, you can come tomorrow, so we’ll start your sessions. Y’know how it goes? One session each two weeks, so the tattoo can heal, and we’ll have about seven session if ya wanna have this full length sleeve,” he explained quickly, moving his hand around the paper, sketching Lance’s arm and the tattoo right on it. Lance watched him in awe, impressed by the fact that someone could actually make this kind of masterpiece out of nothing. Lance had always been good with colors (that’s why his bouquets got so famous) but drawing was like a black magic, he could never get even a single line correct, no matter how hard he tried. “Mind telling me something ‘bout yourself? Would be nice knowing who I’m stuck with for the followin’ months,” Keith asked, just as he always did with all the clients. He didn’t like the tension they were sometimes causing only because they thought it would be cool to stay silent for the whole five hours of tattooing. Keith wasn’t this very talkative type, but it was nice to at least try and make friends like this, but most people weren’t really willing to do it.

Thank God Lance was different.

“If you wish,” he smirked while stretching his arms slightly, as they began hurting from being constantly placed on his thighs. He knew he needed movements, but, two things: first, he had to prepare himself for sitting without moving if he wanted to get through every tattoo session and second, he got really into watching Keith draw and nothing could get him out of it easily. “I’m Lance and I feel funny introducing myself, because you know it already. Also you know more about my health than my friends would ever, weird. I don’t know what I should tell you, I think the sessions themselves will be the real time of getting to know each other. Actually, I have no idea if you would be up to talking while you work. Wouldn’t you, like, get distracted, or something? It would be bad if you did, though. Hope you don’t, really. Okay, back to the point. Do you know why I want a tattoo? Probably not, you didn’t ask about it in your papers. Yeah, my friend, his name’s Hunk, has a half sleeve and Dios Mio! It’s so _perfect_ , man, it’s awesome! So, yeah, also, I like the whole concept, you know, it’s like… expressing yourself, kind of, not quite, but something similar. God, this studio is impressive, man! I heard it’s famous and _professional_ , because Hunk had his tattoo done by Shiro, but he wasn’t the one who recommended this place to me. Well, I don’t remember who did and if I did, this person would be loved by me forever!” He took one, quick breath and was about to continue his rambling, but Keith didn’t let him to.

“Okay, Jesus, stop talkin’ for a while,” Keith whined, turning his sketchbook in Lance’s direction. “Do you like it? The grey parts’ll be blue, but we’ll discuss if you’d rather have these geometric colored or not,” he observed Lance, who was just admiring the artist’s work. Keith saw fear in his eyes, so he decided to continue talking for a bit, not to make Lance more scared. “No, chill out. You don’ have to decide today, colorin’ will happen around session four,” he tried to soothe Lance and, surprisingly, it worked. He never had anything to do with tattoos, so the whole process Keith was describing just scared the shit outta Lance. He was afraid to make decisions right here and now, because he really knew nothing more than what he wanted to have on his arm.

Keith was surprisingly nice to Lance, nicer than he should be with these looks. Also, his accent wasn’t that bad after all, it began starting to be even acceptable and pleasing for Lance’s ears. All he could say was he started to look forward to each session with this boy.

“Aye, another thing,” Keith said, bringing Lance back to reality. “Or a few things, ‘aight? Okay, cool. First, I need you to shave your arm before tomorrow, I can’t do it here. Well, actually, I can, but I dunno how comfortable you’re with these types of things, so do it at home, ‘kay? Right, and now, gimme your arm,” he gestured and Lance brought himself closer, stretching his arm in Keith’s direction. It was weird, Lance started regretting not asking Hunk about how his appointments with Shiro went, because now he was literally prepared for _nothing._ “Fuck,” he heard Keith curse under his breath, so he looked at him weirdly, because who does that all of a sudden? “Now everything’s messed up, ‘cause I didn’t make it in time. Nevermind, we’re gonna sort it out, somehow. Tell me, have you ever experienced any problems with your skin? Like, is it… sensitive or, I dunno, do ya get infections?” He switched from the usual small talk to this professional one. He didn’t have time to read Lance’s papers, so he had to ask about a few things now, because these things would disallow him from getting a tattoo.

This was what Lance was actually prepared for. The assistant he talked to on the phone (now he knew that it was Allura) explained everything to him, though she didn’t say that he will _for sure_ have this kind of talk, but it was definitely possible, depending on how time the artist had. And Keith had _a lot_ , but it slightly messed up when Shiro decided he won’t show up.

“I had… acne when I was in middle school, but nothing bad had happened since then. I actually use a lot of skincare products to keep it like this, because it tends to dry, but no sensitiveness occurs,” Lance explained, hoping Keith wouldn’t laugh at him for using skincare. It’s not like he was ashamed or anything, but it wouldn’t be nice to have a person who would laugh at you for almost thirty hours in summary.

“‘s good, but I need you to bring all your supplies with you tomorrow. We’ll go through the ingredients together, ‘cause we’ve gotta make sure none of these will affect the tattoo. You don’ wanna visit the hospital with infection,” he laughed, but Lance knew he was totally serious with that. “It happened to me when I did my first tattoo. It was on my thigh, but I infected it badly ‘n’ my cream was _not_ made for tattoos, so I ended up in a hospital, my brother drove me and he won’t let it go. But I was, what, sixteen?” Keith’s face looked a lot better when he was laughing and wasn’t angry at his brother, like when he entered the lobby earlier. “‘kay, good. Ya got everything?”

Lance nodded vigorously, still refusing to believe that he was really about to have this gorgeous design on his arm. But he felt like something was different about Keith, which was stupid, as Lance didn’t even know him before. But his behavior was friendly, weirdly sympathetic even, completely not what Lance had been prepared for. It was no bad thing, though, Lance would feel bad if his artist would only ask him work related questions and just didn’t care about him as a person. He was sure that Keith cared about him as a customer, because it was his job after all, he made money tattooing people, so Lance was most importantly his _client_ , but he also aspired to be someone more, a friend specifically. Because, Keith was someone more than just a tattoo artist. Keith was a person, even if he didn’t seem like that with his ungodly work.

“Understood,” Lance finally replied, smiling. Keith gave him a small grin, like his face wasn’t used to these kinds of expressions. Lance didn’t mind it, because he was planning to befriend him by the end of their last session together. He felt like this would be the hardest challenge of his life, but he was more than willing to accept it. And pass it, precisely.

“Good, so see ya tomorrow. But don’ be late, ‘cause I won’t be waitin’,” Keith said playfully, knowing he was telling pure lies. Lance had already paid for the first three sessions, so there was no way Keith wouldn’t be waiting for him. Shiro wouldn’t, probably, but only if he actually _showed up_ at work.


	2. session no.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance begins to experience weird symptoms. It's definitely the heat in the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 2, a little short, but it's here!!  
> enjoy!!

To say Lance had been excited the whole day after he had his first appointment was like to say nothing, and that was not exaggerated at all. He was literally jumping around Hunk’s car, Hunk’s apartment, then Pidge’s kitchen, because they decided it would be a great idea (it wasn’t, but it should be left unsaid), then his own apartment. They were meant to go to many places, because that was what their plans were, but it was impossible with an excited Lance. Pidge couldn’t understand what was so exciting and thrilling about his _first_ appointment, when even the tattoo designing wasn’t as intense as Lance described it to be.

But, when he told his friends about this pretty girl from the lobby, everything became just a little clearer. It was a fact, this kind of thing that each and every one of Lance’s friends knew, that he was a _flirt,_ or, as Pidge described it, _a fucking flirt with no damn control._ But that wasn’t true and Lance had always been arguing about it. He _had_ a lot of control, okay, maybe not with flirting, but he never did anything without permission. Outside of flirting, again. Pidge understood the fact that he was excited to meet this new girl, because from what he told her and Hunk, she really looked gorgeous. It was impossible how many details Lance had managed to remember as he was only looking at her for about a minute, probably a lot less. The way he was talking about her gorgeous, warm blue eyes could lead to Pidge thinking he’d developed a new crush which he would do absolutely _nothing_ with, just like every other time. And Pidge would really be thinking that way, if Lance didn’t start rambling about this cute tattoo artist he met.

Oh God, Pidge thought she would die while listening to him. First, it was a solid fifteen minutes about Allura, then three times more about Keith. Lance _was_ openly bisexual, but she didn’t think it would start like this. Two pretty people one day? Unbelievable! Lance was going on about that artist’s hair most of the time, emphasising how bad, yet pretty it looked. Pidge couldn’t understand what he tried to say, but turned out his explanation was even _worse._ He told her than it was a mullet, _a fucking mullet, Pidge!_ , old-fashioned as hell, nobody had it anymore. But, as Lance said, Keith was weird, he was a tattoo artist, so it was acceptable (well, at some point). Still, it looked somehow pretty, like his face was made for long hair, especially while pulled up in a messy ponytail. Lance wanted to know if it was long enough to do even a simple braid, but Pidge laughed at him when he told her.

He couldn’t sleep at night, but he tried his best, as Keith told him he can’t be tired, because the session would be most likely lasting for a few hours, between four and six. Lance couldn’t escape the excitement this whole tattoo thing had put into him. Pidge even, being the devil she _for sure_ was, had been torturing her friend endlessly sending him pictures of her and Hunk drinking beer. It was some weird kind of their tradition, every Friday evening they met up in one of their apartments, usually it was Hunk’s, as his one was _definitely_ the cleanest one. And Lance, unfortunately, was out for more than three months, missing _way too many_ meetings. But if it meant he was gonna be a proud owner of this gorgeous design on his arm, he was willing to sacrifice some of his routine.

He was given an hour, which was ten in the morning and was now rushing to the studio. He was on the phone with Pidge, trying his best to memorize the road, so he wouldn’t have to have Maps opened every single time.

“Are you sure you want to do it?” She asked him once again, as if her words would make any difference. She still believed it, but apparently, Lance had something else in mind.

“ _Yes_ , how many times am I supposed to tell you that?” His voice began to sound a little off, almost annoyed, but he tried his best not to laugh, because Pidge was truly adorable trying to convince him. “Girl, I’ve literally scheduled three appointments already, I can’t refuse now. But I wouldn’t anyways, oh! Yeah, I totally forgot, man, your face reminded me!” He shamelessly pointed at Pidge’s face, filled with slight disappointment. “I gotta ask the guy if he’s willing to somehow fit you in his schedule, it can even be during my own appointment, right? Anything after twelve would suit you, I think? Excluding, or, _excludin’,_ Keith would say, Wednesday, because, if I’m correct, you’re teaching some techy kids,” Lance rambled a little, but Pidge couldn’t even say that she was annoyed by this.

Lance could be anything: tiring, hard to deal with sometimes, loud, obnoxious, flirty, but mostly, he was an awesome friend. He knew _everything_ he should know and even more, starting with his friends’ weekly schedules, that was why he knew exactly what Pidge’s plans were. He deeply cared about every person he found important and that was _a lot_ of them. Probably over twenty, if not more. If he found out that one of his friends wanted something, he would do _anything_ , to give it to them, only to see them smiling. Of course, he was annoying as hell, Pidge’s words, but it didn’t mean she didn’t love him. The only thing Pidge wondered about was _why_ Lance didn’t have any lover, significant other, whoever who would be more than a friend to him. She knew that when you got to know him better, he was the sweetest human being (well, maybe after Hunk) and it was practically _impossible_ for him to not have any special person. He had, however, a few boyfriends and girlfriends, but nothing too serious, as he described it. Pidge believed him, because he seriously was kind of happy alone, having his friends constantly by his side, his life was just simply working out.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” Hunk asked, casually entering the room. He came here in the morning, seven precisely, to make sure his friend won’t be late again. He decided he would support him no matter what, even if it equaled getting up at an ungodly hour like that. “Hey, Pidge!” He mindlessly waved at Lance’s phone, even if he knew that Pidge wouldn’t see him. Hunk was just simply a precious bean and his behaviour only proved it.

“Yeah, yeah, I was just trying to get and memorize the road, here,” he pointed at his laptop placed on the counter, showing that he had half an hour long ride to get to the studio. It was closer than from Hunk’s apartment, but still not as close as Lance would like to. “Okay, Pidge, talk to you later, I’m getting out,” he hung up right after he said that and shoved his phone in the back pocket of his jeans. He tried to look cool and fashionable, not some old sweats, but still comfortable enough to sit without shifting for hours. Normally, he would get bored after ten minutes, but he hoped it would be all different, yet still only if Keith would be willing to let him talk like he did the day before. “Okay, Hunk, you wanna come with me? I mean, you can take the car after we get to the studio, I won’t keep you waiting for hours, you have your own life after all, right? Okay, nice, Madre mia, I’m nervous, Hunk, what the hell? I’m talking too much, aren’t I?” He spit out words like rifle bullets, too many for too little time he had.

“Maybe a bit, but I was just the same before my tattoo,” he laughed at the same time they ran down the stairs to get to Lance’s old cadillac. “You know, it’s actually kinda scary, but you know everything, I hope, so it won’t really be that bad for you,” Hunk decided to talk for a while, knowing that his voice used to always soothe Lance, whenever he was feeling nervous. It was better than to let _Lance_ talk, because it would lead to a lot of yelling, shaking and weird Spanish words, Hunk _really_ wanted to prevent it. “I don’t know if it’s gonna help you, but it’s really nothing you should be nervous about, not at all. See, the first time the tattoo gun is close to your skin seems terrifying, but it kind of tickles, to be honest. I can only talk about my experience with Shiro, but you told me they were brothers, so I assume their work might be similar? I don’t know, really, but the point is that you don’t have to be nervous, in fact, you should relax your muscles, because if you don’t do it, the artist won’t be able to tattoo you properly,” he finished, smiling brightly.

Lance didn’t question Hunk’s words even for a moment, because he knew that his friend had all the knowledge that was necessary. Hunk was saving money to have another half sleeve, or even a full one, he hadn’t decided yet. He talked to Shiro a few times, asking if he could save some time for him in order to have the tattoo done and he agreed, saying Hunk was one of his best clients so far. They weren’t close friends, but it was enough to call them buddies, they guessed. Hunk told Shiro that he didn’t have to schedule his appointment any time in the near future, because it would be at least a few months before he had all the money to manage. He was actually halfway through, but it still didn’t mean anything for sure.

“This shop is stupid,” Lance randomly stated, looking at his phone to see if he was going in the right direction. Hunk glanced at him, visibly confused and unable to get what his friend was trying to express. “It’s like, no sé, somewhere in this city where it’s _far_ from everywhere! It’s not the center, because, look, you live in the center and it’s not there. But it’s not the suburbs either, it’s too close to the city yet so _far!_ I need to ask Keith what the hell were they thinking when they bought this place. I don’t think it should be that way, Hunk, it’s stupid! And there’s always some traffic, so thanks for reminding me to drive earlier,” Lance would be gesturing wildly, but he had to have his hands stable on the steering wheel, if he didn’t want to cause any accidents.

There was this mysterious traffic Lance was talking about, but it wasn’t as intense as the day before, when they were trying to get to the studio in time. Lance knew this time he was going to be there right when he was expected to come, even Hunk couldn’t agree on that case. They went out about forty minutes before the appointment started and the ride took them half an hour. A bit long, but still acceptable. Pidge didn’t call, saying she needed to help Matt with something. He was working in a company that specialized in any kind of computer designing, so it was basically perfect for his _nerdy_ , as Lance called it, persona. On the other hand, Matt was _awful_ at anything connected with _designing_ , meaning he always asked to use Pidge’s help, just like that time.

“Okay, cool, we’re almost there,” Lance stated while they were waiting for the lights to change, so they could park outside the shop. “No, Hunk, don’t give me that look! I won’t keep you waiting here, man, you know how long it takes! Jesus, Hunk, can you _stop_? Four hours are not an acceptable amount of time to be sitting in the car! Go home, call Shay, I know you’ve been wanting to do so, but Pidge and I were both involving you in way too many things, probably, so take this as an opportunity to meet up with her and have a good day,” Lance said, finally parking the car on the driveway. “Anyway, I’ll try to keep your advice in mind, have the keys, here, and just live your best life today, bye!” Lance said quickly before leaving the car and slowly approaching the door. He still got five minutes, but he also figured out it’s better to be a little early than late.

“Good morning, what can I do— oh, it’s you!” Allura started her casual customer talk, but quickly changed it when she saw Lance entering the stop. “You can take a seat here, Keith should be ready in a few,” As Lance expected, her accent was really starting to become pleasing as hell.

“What’s your name, by the way?” Lance asked, sitting by the counter, placing his elbow on it and desperately trying to find a badge with a name somewhere on this girl’s clothing, but he couldn’t. “It’s weird when you all know everything about me and everyone here and I know no shit about you all. I’m just a customer, I know, but— oh! Oh, I remember, Keith called you ‘lura, right? It’s kind of a weird name, no offence, but who has it like that?” He didn’t even realize how much he was talking, but Allura didn’t seem bothered by it, instead, she smiled widely and chuckled, Lance could’ve sworn it had been by far the cutest sound he’d ever heard.

“It’s _Allura,_ actually, Keith just can’t speak properly,” she, on the other hand, sounded _extremely_ proper, it was a little weird at first, but you got easily used to it. “Also, no offence taken, you don’t have to worry! Oh!” She squeaked, glancing at the door. “Hey, Shiro! Did you lose your brother while coming here?” She laughed and while Shiro was trying to get it all together, Lance would take his time and examine the man’s looks. Shiro was exactly how Hunk described him. Tall, handsome, his Asian facial features made him even more attractive, also adding a bit of softness to his sharp sculpted face. He wore a casual, fitting white tank top, showing his shoulder tattoo in the shape of a black and white tiger. Lance recognized it as Keith’s work, but the style was a little sharper, so he assumed it must have been done a few years before.

“You look kind of familiar,” Shiro said, rubbing his chin as he desperately tried to recall something. It took him a few seconds of awkward silence, but Lance still laughed quietly at the older man’s behavior. “Ah, right! You’re Lance, Hunk’s friend. He talked about you a little bit when we were getting done with his tattoo, but these were only good things, don’t worry!” Lance couldn’t help the feeling that Shiro acted more like a teenager than a man in his thirties, but honestly, nobody minded. Shiro opened his mouth to speak again, but then somebody slammed the door open, _yeeted,_ as Lance would say. He was actually amazed that the door didn’t crash anything, as the wall took a pretty strong hit.

“‘kashi, I swear to God! If ya keep this up—!” Keith entered the lobby, yelling at his brother, not even realizing that they weren’t alone there. “You can’t keep runnin’ from me like that, I’m not a child anymore!” He finally looked around the place, noticing that everyone was staring at him. “‘kay, ‘kay, don’ say anything, ‘lura, I know I just fucked up everything, but it’s all ‘kashi’s fault!” Of course it was. Having an older brother equaled blaming him for absolutely anything and Keith liked it.

“So, are you ready to take your appointment?” Allura asked, pointing at Lance, who felt weirdly amused by the whole situation. He didn’t think that casually getting a tattoo could be this funny, Hunk didn’t tell him about it — probably because he didn’t have such an experience. Keith glanced at Allura, then quickly at Lance, as if he was completely confused.

“A second, ‘lura,” the way he said her name was absolutely weird, but funny, Allura was completely right. Keith couldn’t talk for shit, but Lance didn’t mind that at all. Then, entered the small room and a loud curse could be heard after no longer than five seconds. Shiro worriedly asked if everything was okay and he had to wait another minute for a proper reply. “‘m good, ‘kashi! Dropped the ink, but I’m ‘boutta clean it. Aye, Lance, be there in a few!” He called his newest client, who tried his best not to die while laughing.

Lance was actually happy that this studio didn’t turn out to be this weird, strict and boring place where everyone was far too formal with each other. He feared that, to be honest, because he completely forgot to ask Hunk about it, although from the friendship he had with Shiro, Lance couldn’t assume these people were boring. Weird, of course, especially Keith, but it was by no means a bad thing. Still, they were all professionals, because Keith didn’t leave the ink as it spilled and instead he decided to clean it up, even if it meant slightly delaying the appointment. Lance had… well, more like Hunk had some experience with bad tattoo parlors. He had been in quite a few ones, but the worst was the second one he found somewhere on the internet. It looked kind of nice on the website, but when Hunk entered it, he froze in place. Dust was _everywhere,_ ink was spilled all over the floor and people looked like they completely didn’t care. This place was undoubtedly different and Lance was incredibly grateful for it.

“Fuckin’ finally,” Keith came out of the room, a frown on his face and a stain of black ink on his palm, but it could’ve as well been a part of his tattoo, Lance still didn’t figure it out. “Come on, we’re goin’,” he gestured at Lance and after a second they were both heading to one of the rooms at the corridor. “Okay, now I’m gonna explain some things for ya, ‘kay? Awesome. See, first, we put the tattoo gun into the sanitizer, here, because we can’t afford more than four machines yet. We get everythin’ from these disposable packagings, you can ask me if you’re not sure ‘bout somethin’, I won’t mind. Jesus, sit down, you look fuckin’ uncomfortable just standin’ there. I have to be walkin’ around to grab the essentials, but you’re here to be tattooed, so chill out, _Lance,_ ” the tone of his voice when he called Lance’s name sent weird shivers down the said boy’s spine. “Fine, today— Shit!” he stopped when he almost dropped the box with things he tried to place on the little table near the chair. “‘kay, today we’ll be stickin’ this paper to your shoulder in order to mirror it onto your skin. Only shoulder, because it’s gonna wash out and we don’t want the work to fade, understand? Then we’ll try to get the outlines done, color’ll be session three, you know that already. Jesus, hope I told ya everythin’, it’s hard to memorize it all, even when you say it all the time,” Keith laughed, quickly walking to the hanger and placed his hoodie on it. He now stood there with a loose, gray tank top that had the tattoo shop’s name on it. Lance couldn’t stop staring, he knew that and he desperately wanted to stop, but his eyes didn’t want to cooperate.

Lance could already say that he admired Keith in any way possible, it was weird, but denying wasn’t really an option. His head felt like it was filled with cotton pads, but without pads, like cotton itself, but more of a cotton candy, that was all Lance could think of, but it was definitely a good thing. The whole room was filled with Keith’s perfume, which smelled impossibly sweet compared to what he looked like. Lance liked the smell, a weird mixture of vanilla and raspberries, completely unlike Keith, yet still incredibly fitting. Lance guessed it was all because of that damn smile, looking like it was _made_ for Keith’s face, the exact opposite of this ugly frown he had whenever his brother annoyed him. Keith’s face was lit up, his snake bites rings weirdly complemented his features, Lance liked that. It was nice, Keith had dimples even when he wasn’t smiling super widely. His eyes slightly wrinkled, shining brightly — he must’ve really liked his job.

“Okay, I need ya to take your shirt off, it’ll be better and more comfortable than sittin’ with a rolled up sleeve for hours,” Keith didn’t ask if he was comfortable with that this time, because it was his job and Lance _knew_ what it meant when he signed up for the tattoo. He couldn’t just be embarrassed, because they would never get it done then. “Come on, we don’ have the whole day!” He threw on a pair of black, latex gloves on his hands and a white, surgical mask on his face while he was waiting for Lance to prepare himself.

Lance watched Keith’s hands move, smoothly as hell, just like all the artists’ he’d met in high school and college. He had been caught off guard so many times that day, hoping nobody would realize it. He breathed heavily before throwing his t-shirt off and placing it neatly on the table.

Keith was staring.

Lance quickly saw him do it, but didn’t comment on that. He had the right to do it, he was an artist here, he had to know whom he was working with, especially from the physical side. Lace shivered when his bare skin met with the cold air in the room. Has it been _this_ freezing before? He didn’t pay attention when he could have his shirt on, but now he could _so_ feel the goosebumps forming.

“Oh, shit!” Keith yelped right when he realized what the situation in the room had done to Lance. “‘kashi, for fuck’s sake, turn the air conditioning off in Room Three!” His shouting was loud to the point Lance had to cover his ears. After a few seconds the temperature rose up and started to be more than acceptable, pleasing even. Lance felt his muscles relax under the tender touch of the air, feeling almost like someone’s fingers.

Keith approached him, sitting on his own, leather stool and placed a thin layer of paper on Lance’s bicep. His fingers squeezed it tightly, trying to adjust it, so the print would look the best it could. Lance tried hard not to tense under Keith’s touch, but it was almost like a lost battle. Keith was delicate, a lot more than Lance thought he would be, it was definitely pleasing. Even the feeling of latex on his skin wasn’t as bad as he could be, mainly because of Keith’s smile that was distracting enough to make Lance lose his mind completely.

Keith suddenly placed his left palm on Lance’s chest, feeling his heart pounding heavily. His second hand was still squeezing Lance’s shoulder. Lance had just lost his breath. Nobody had ever acted towards him _that_ way, even if it was purely professional and not affectionate at all. Keith was just simply doing his job, but Lance felt like he was about to pass out.

“You okay?” Keith asked, now only the tips of his fingers brushing against Lance’s chest, voice low, eyes full of worry. “Didn’t warn you about touching, my bad,” his words weren’t phrased eloquently, but his tone showed that he was really worried about Lance’s comfort. The last thing he wanted was to keep the tension like this for the rest of the appointment, probably the following ones as well. “If anything’s uncomfortable or simply wrong, you can just tell me, we’ll figure out somethin’ better then,” he tried his best in comforting, even though he definitely wasn’t made for that. What a great way of starting a new project, indeed.

“It’s fine,” Lance breathed out, adjusting his position on the chair, grinning at Keith. He didn’t want him to feel like he did something wrong, because he really didn’t. Lance had just been caught off guard, once again, that’s all. “Didn’t expect that, but it’s nothing. You can go on, we’ve wasted enough time already,” Lance felt his head spinning, but it was from the room’s heat, _this air conditioning must’ve been broken_ , definitely.

Keith finished printing fairly quickly after this little accident. His cheeks were now flushed bright pink, Shiro must’ve really messed up the temperature, but there was no time to actually get it fixed then. Keith felt his palms sweating under the gloves and he was grateful that he was already finished with the printing. He couldn’t understand why Shiro was having so much fun with interrupting his younger brother’s work. It didn’t matter then, actually, nothing did when Keith could’ve sworn he was practically melting. He grabbed his gray hair tie and put his hair in a messy bun, exposing yet another tattoo which was normally hidden under his black curls. Lance looked at him right after opening his eyes, as he almost fell asleep under Keith’s soft touch. He hadn’t even bothered to look at his shoulder, placing all his attention on the boy in front of him. Keith was… well, Lance had been looking for the right adjective, because everything he was coming up with just didn’t sit right with him. Weird? No, his accent definitely was, but it didn’t feel so important. Pretty? No, Allura was, but Keith was different. Attractive? Lance wasn’t the one to judge it. Friendly? He couldn’t tell if it was being nice or just professional, so this word wasn’t right either.

Lance took it as his little challenge: to find the right word that would fit with Keith perfectly.

“D’you mind if I take my top off? Would be perfectly okay if not, just thought—” he couldn’t find the right words for some time and Lance thought he looked pretty cute like that, hair sticking to his forehead, a few drops of sweat, tattooed hand scratching the back of the same tattooed neck. “Would be better for both of us, because I don’ feel like stopping my work to go and try to fix this myself. ‘kashi probably won’t do it for me and ‘lura’s pretty busy out there,” he explained quickly, meeting Lance’s glowing eyes. He nodded, giving Keith permission, because it would be _very_ inappropriate to force him to suffer with his shirt on.

Keith breathed with clear exhaustion, but also with a slight of relief. Lance could now have a full look on Keith’s soft body. The way he stretched his arms was _weird_ , but Lance probably had no right to judge him for that. They were here for… an hour and a half already, he definitely could be tired.

“Let’s get to inking, then,” Keith stated, slightly pushing Lance’s body backwards. “I need you to lie down, it’ll be more comfortable for both me and you,” he said, switching to the more usual accent, but Texan hints could still be heard, Lance quickly grew to accept it.

“Can I have a question before we start?” Lance asked, a bit shyly, as if he wasn’t sure if he actually could do it. His question wasn’t really connected with his own tattoo, so the tension in his chest began to grow. Keith didn’t really know how to help, so instead, he just nodded quietly, preparing inks on the table. “What’s with the tattoo on your belly?” Lance pointed at the lifeline tattoo at the left side of Keith’s stomach, above his belly button. His shoulders tensed slightly, but Lance couldn’t see that.

“We’re not yet in that stage of relationship when I’d be telling you about my personal stuff,” he answered quietly, trying out the tattoo gun before he warned Lance and started his work again. Lance hissed at the first touch, but got used to it rather easily, easier than Keith thought he would.

Lance seemed peaceful, but his insides were bouncing and twisting and jumping and he didn’t know what to do with it. They weren’t in that stage of relationship _yet_ , what the hell was that supposed to mean? How could he know what was going on? He left his brain working harder and harder each second. He didn’t know what Keith actually meant when he said that. Of course, Lance wanted to be friends with him, but he didn’t even think that the feeling could be mutual. Now, he couldn’t be sure about anything and it became distressing. He knew thinking too much wouldn’t do him any favor, so he decided to talk instead, as Keith seemed to like it.

“Hey, man,” he started, being immediately distracted by this sweet smell that was sickening now with the temperature in the room, but it didn’t stop him from talking, “I have this friend, her name’s Katie, but she’s going by Pidge, you may have heard of her, since she’s friends with Hunk, who’s friends with your brother, that’s weird and kinda complicated, but nevermind. So, she’s being pretty jealous of me getting a tattoo and I was wondering — it’s okay if it’s not possible, I was just thinking — you know, if you could — maybe —” he realized he started rambling like crazy, which felt weird, because now he was banned from gesturing his hands. “Jesus, shit! Okay, I was wondering if maybe you could tattoo her as well? I know you’re busy, but it could be during our appointments, if that’s not a problem, of course. She can go whenever you’d like, preferably after twelve and don’t count Wednesday, she’s pretty busy then. Jesus, it sounds like you’ve already agreed, sorry,” Lance didn’t really freak out, but it was definitely weird. The way he was talking to Keith seemed like he’d known him his whole life, not met him the day before, but Lance liked it exactly how it was.

Keith snorted, _Jesus Christ, he snorted_ , but continued tattooing Lance. He couldn’t believe how chaotic this boy was, far different from his own friends and brother, but still pleasing to talk to. He glanced at his client quickly, seeing his clearly confused expression. Keith brushed his free hand over Lance’s forearm, but said nothing. His face was funny, but one fact was undoubtedly true — Lance was pretty, handsome, beautiful, not fully Keith’s type, but every adjective connected with beauty applied to him. Plus, the tattoo looked awesome on him, Keith couldn’t wait until he sees the whole thing. It was the first time when he was _this_ proud of his job. Until then, his very best work was on his own body, but he started to think that Lance had been a lot better to be tattooed than himself. His skin was perfect, flawless, also tanned, not white as paper like Keith’s.

“You’re lucky I liked you, think it’d be possible to fit her into my schedule,” he finally answered, feeling Lance relax under his touch. Keith liked it. “Also, you forgot to bring your skincare products as I told you, right? Nah, it’s nothin’, but I need ya to bring ‘em before we’re finished tattooing, ‘kay?”

They were done for that day quicker than they realized. Lance had fallen asleep for half an hour, but Keith didn’t mind it. Not that he annoyed him with his talking, which was rather interesting and funny than annoying, but if he needed rest, tattoo sessions could easily provide it. Keith grabbed the cream and some foil, shaking Lance’s shoulder slightly.

“Come on, we gotta prepare it for some healin’,” he said softly, helping Lance sit a little more upright. “I’ll give ya a sample of this cream, it’s not really expensive, but still. ‘kay, I’ll wrap your shoulder with this foil, but you’ll only need to wear it while you’re showering or working, ‘aight?” He gently took Lance’s arm and started to wrap it up tenderly. His breath was short, forcing him to remember to ask Shiro to help him fix the heating later that day. “Good, Lance, see you in two weeks!”

Lance took his shirt and put it on, slowly walking to the exit. His brain was weirdly invaded by Keith’s persona and he couldn’t figure out how much he liked it. He was about to leave the room when he heard Keith screeching, or whatever that sound was, so he turned on his heel and was now facing the artist.

“Here,” Keith shoved a messed up sticky note (pastel pink _, cute_ ) right into Lance’s hand. Their fingers brushed for a second, sending shivering feeling towards their bodies. A nice feeling, undoubtedly. “Message me whenever you need somethin’, tattoo related or not, your choice,” he smiled fondly, his eyes following Lance as he left the room, leaving Keith standing there, bare chested, whole body flushed with heat. Awesome, indeed, Keith couldn’t lie.

Lance was slowly walking to the bus, heat blooming in his heart while he pressed the paper to his chest with a big smile forming on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed the chapter, remember to take care and drink water!!  
> you can find me on tumblr via @ loverboy-spritz or twitter via @ spritzerrrr if you wanna talk!!
> 
> remember i love you all very much!


	3. session no.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heating is still broken, from what Lance can say looking at Keith's faint blush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's finally here!!!  
> I'm trying hard to manage school and writing, which is hard but I'm going!!  
>  please enjoy the chapter!!!

**tattoo keith**

(2:17PM) hey, this is lance, from your latest (i suppose?) appointment

(2:18PM) just wanted to make sure if the number you gave me is correct

_ (2:19PM) impatient much, huh? we literally finished 5 minutes ago man _

(2:20PM) I KNOW OKAY? I said I was only checking if this number is the right one, could you please quit judging me for that? plus I'm on a bus, so it's boring, dunno if you use buses, but they're boring as hell

_ (2:22PM) then go and be bored on your bus alone, I have work to do _

(2:22PM) do you really dislike me that much? thought something different when we were in the studio

Lance didn’t know what he was doing when he first messaged Keith. He knew, shit, he  _ knew  _ that the boy would be probably busy with his work, come on, he was a tattoo artist after all. He probably seemed desperate, because he decided to tap the number into his phone a minute after he said his goodbyes to all the people in the lobby, including this tall, tanned guy with dark blonde hair, whoever he was. Lance didn’t bother to ask about his name, as he thought he might see him there again. He just had these, sort of, vibes, different from what Keith had, but they were there and Lance  _ knew  _ this guy was somehow an important person. Maybe not to the studio in particular, but there was something in this man, maybe the fact that he was literally sat in Shiro’s lap? Nah, probably not. Everyone does that, right? At least Lance did that all the time, with Hunk mostly, but sometimes with random classmates during his high school years. It  _ was  _ considered weird back then, but it turned out to be rather pleasing, because Lance was the best friend you could ever wish for.

**tattoo keith**

_ (2:35PM) i wasn’t the one who got all flustered haha _

Oh, that’s what you wanna play, huh, Lance thought.  _ Of course  _ he was gonna get flustered when a boy like  _ Keith  _ was touching his  _ bare  _ chest, just to make it all clear. Lance wasn’t some type of a guy who could stay still without saying a word. His body was  _ expressive _ , more than he would like it to, but it was something Lance got used to rather easily. It wasn’t like he could just change it the next day. His whole family was like this, especially older siblings. It was definitely funny watching them arguing, or just simply talking, in a public place, like the mall, or something.

**tattoo keith**

(2:36PM) WELL EXCUSE ME for getting surprised when someone UNEXPECTEDLY touches my CHEST

(2:37PM) besides, you didn’t seem to be refusing, also aren’t you gonna repair this air conditioning, because sitting here for 4 hours was HELL

_ (2:38PM) I would, but somebody decided to disturb me and Kashi is calling me _

(2:38PM) why don’t you go then? enjoy talking to me that much, huh?

_ (2:39PM) well, I went to him, but turned out he had Adam over and I called Kashi’s friend to repair it, he was an engineering major in college I think? _

(2:40PM) you mean a sitting–in–Shiro’s–lap kind of Adam? I saw him when I was leaving

_ (2:42PM) wait, you know Adam? wtf why didn’t Kashi tell me about it _

(2:43PM) what the hell keith? no i don’t know Adam, at least not this Adam we’re talking about. I just saw this man acting lovey dovey towards shiro and when you said Adam was over I just assumed that it was him?

_ (2:45PM) oh, right, should’ve told you about it tho. nevermind, i’m free and you’re bored, so we can ask each other questions as SOMEONE fell asleep during our appointment _

(2:46PM) are all tattoo artists this mean to their customers?

_ (2:46PM) no, just for you <3 _

_ (2:47PM) okay, that was stupid. I go first, are you single? _

(2:49PM) is it the first question you ask people you JUST MET? it’s flattering but Keith what the actual hell?

_ (2:50PM) it’s professional, so I know if any of my behavior is uncomfortable for you, jesus christ, don’t flatter yourself too much _

(2:51PM) how would it make me feel uncomfortable?

(2:51PM) Keith you don't make any sense right now

_ (2:52PM) I’M TRYING TO MAKE A POINT HERE OKAY? _

_ (2:53PM) so, are you, Lance? _

(2:54PM) yes, I am, now you. are you always this cute?

(2:55PM) don’t flatter yourself either, keith, it’s just so I know

_ (2:56PM) maybe I am, dunno how to measure my own “cuteness”, but I guess I am? _

_ (2:57PM) are you already at home? _

Lance  _ really  _ didn’t know what to think about it, nobody had ever asked him about something like that. People like Pidge and Hunk knew exactly when he was coming home and how long his ride was taking, but Keith was new. Lance couldn’t lie, it was kind of nice than he wanted to talk with him about topics that weren’t related to work by any means. Lance’s plan on befriending Keith was working out perfectly.

He went out from the bus and quickly rushed to his apartment, trying not to use his tattooed arm too much, as it was still hurting a little bit. His phone kept buzzing with plenty of messages, two from Pidge, asking how the session went and one from Hunk, a lot of cuteness and his pure persona and _a lot_ from Keith. They weren’t making any sense, Lance practically jumped when he heard his ringtone right after he entered the apartment and plopped on the couch.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He almost yelled into the speaker, noticing that  **tattoo keith** was calling him. “Man, I just entered my house! Before you say anything, I  _ couldn’t  _ answer you because I was trying to enter the block  _ and  _ open the door using only one hand, so go easy on me and don’t you  _ dare  _ judge me!” Lance kept yelling at him abd gesturing, even though he was more than aware that Keith couldn’t see him.

_ “Just thought talkin’ would be better than messagin’ each other,”  _ Lance could’ve sworn that Keith shrugged, but he refused to ask him about it. On the other hand, he couldn’t stop laughing when he heard his new… friend? talk like that, again. It was weird, even weirder on the phone than face to face, Lance forced himself to not snort like some stupid guy. He didn’t want Keith to think that he was weird.

“Wow, we’re back to forgetting the ‘g’ in every damn word, good job, Keith,” he chuckled. “It’s ‘talking’, Dios Mio, is it really that hard for you to say? Man, it’s nice, actually, but when you start talking fast like crazy, it becomes impossible to understand!” Lance knew he was rambling, but a little of it never killed nobody. Besides, Keith wasn’t complaining, so he had literally no excuse to stop talking. “Listen, even Allura told me you can’t talk for shit, it has to mean something, she’s got the best and the most gorgeous accent ever!”

Keith took some time to answer this time and Lance could hear a lot of noises coming from the background. Shiro was definitely yelling at Keith for, as quoted, ‘flirting with his latest appointment when you should be helping me, little brother’ and some other stuff followed by a bunch of swear words Lance didn’t know, but he assumed they were Japanese. They were probably harder than a simple ‘fuck’, because he heard someone scolding Shiro for using them. The voice was unknown, Lance would normally describe it at rather sweet and soft, but it sounded harsh at that exact moment. It was a little muffled, Keith’s phone’s speaker clearly wasn’t in its best shape then. Everything mixed together for a second and Lance knew it meant that Keith placed his phone somewhere and went away, but for some reason he didn’t hang up. It took Lance a solid minute to adjust to the new set of sounds, but by that time everything went back to normal.

Keith’s high pitched scream ‘‘kashi what the  _ fuck!? _ ’ proved Lance that it was all in the right place. He even tried asking what the hell had happened there, but his voice disappeared in all the yelling filling the shop’s lobby. Lance was currently discovering the new, different side of the tattoo shop’s workers. They acted professional around him, when he was their appointment, but he couldn’t lie, he liked them better that way. It was easier to relate to them then. Lance thought it was all good, when he heard a sudden, new voice. Well, new to this exact conversation, but more than well-known to Lance himself. This was clearly Hunk, the same Hunk he’d been friends with, the same Hunk who had also been friends with Shiro, which meant—

“Hey! You’re trying to tell me that  _ Hunk _ , my Hunk was the engineering major friend who was coming to fix the conditioning!?” Lance yelled, loudly to the point that everyone else on the other side of the phone literally froze, their mouths probably opened. “Come on! Why didn’t anyone tell me, Hunk, what a betrayal!” Lance shouted at his friend, knowing he was right there, by the phone and heard him perfectly. He wasn’t even blaming him for real, but come on, who does that? Lance was his number one friend, not a guy who had his air conditioning broken.

_ “Chill out, he didn’t want to drag ya here, y’ deserve some rest after all,” _ Keith spoke, or at least the man whose accent sounded like Keith’s, Lance had problems acknowledging whose voice was whose when they were all far away from the phone.  _ “Jeez, no! No, ‘kashi, go and ask ‘lura ‘bout it, and quit swearin’, Adam disapproves, am I right? Don’t you fuckin’ come at me, at least I swear in English!” _

Lance felt weirdly relieved, listening to all of them being happy like that. It brought some sort of nostalgia, because that was doing the exact same things back in high school and college, even after they all graduated. Lance  _ wanted  _ to say they were all grown adults, but the truth was that their minds definitely weren’t. But was that really a bad thing? Not for Lance, apparently. He liked being childish sometimes, nobody was going to judge him for that.

_ “Keith, could you not daydream like that? We’re trying to fix the damn thing right here, if you didn’t realize!” _ Shiro shouted and someone, probably Adam, covered his mouth when another wave of Japanese swears was about to come out.

_ “Aye, aye, Takashi, I told you something, no swearing around me… and kids,”  _ Lance wouldn’t be surprised if Adam had just pointed at Keith and Hunk.  _ “Also, Keith, Hunk here is clearly and visibly struggling, could you at least hold this stupid chair for him?” _

_ “If you say ‘comin’’ once again, I’m literally kicking you out!”  _ Allura chimed in, sounding oddly funny with that British accent of hers. It felt like she was the only one actually trying to make her voice sound the proper way.

_ “I swear, Keith, if you don’t stop staring at your phone I’m willing to throw it on the street, and you’ll see it getting crashed by the cars!”  _ Shiro’s voice got slightly lower, but Lance knew he was holding back the laughter, to make his threat sound more natural.

“Keith, what are you really doing there?” Lance managed to ask, literally wheezing after listening to them all. They were impossible, all blaming Keith who didn’t even bother to answer any of them, probably because they didn’t give him any opportunity to do so. “From what I heard, nothing,” Lance sounded stupid, he was aware of that one, as his voice was constantly being cut off by the new wave of laughter desperately trying to escape his lips.

_ “Not my fault!”  _ Keith excused himself, Lance could  _ hear  _ him smiling, which was weird, but nothing unusual for the Cuban himself.  _ “‘kashi’s just blamin’ me for not helpin’, while it’s literally him who broke this stupid shit! Come on, Lance, don’t betray me on it, not you too!” _ He cried out, finally grabbing his phone and placing it closer to his ear, so the others’ voices weren’t as hearable as before.  _ “Hunk’s getting it done, finally, guess I should go, call ya later, Lance,”  _ he hung up before Lance could say anything, but he didn’t blame his new friend for that. This day was wild, for each and every one of them, Lance was truly happy that he was able to rest, unlike Hunk.

  
  


───────

Two weeks never felt like minutes before. Lance thought it would be like eternity before his second session would arrive, but he was extremely wrong, as it turned out in the end. He kept rambling about how cool his tattoo was gonna look for hours, or minutes, he couldn’t figure it out. Hunk, who had  _ a lot  _ of funny stories from that day when they were fixing the conditioning in the shop, was forced to listen to Lance’s statements over and over. This boy could be going on about it endlessly and his friends weren’t even mad at him anymore. Especially Pidge, who was ecstatic about having a tattoo.

Her reaction was truly priceless. Lance told her the next day after he was done with his first tattoo session, when he invited both Pidge and Hunk over. He texted her that he ‘had some good news for her’, which caused her to practically kick the door open and enter Lance’s apartment in ten minutes, when it usually took her almost twenty to get there. She kept yelling and shouting and moving around more than usual, only to make Lance actually notice her and tell here these so called ‘good news’. She just had to know what it was, but her friend refused to say a word, not until Hunk had finally arrived. Pidge was the cutest stressed out person ever, her excitement well beyond her small, five feet six inches tall frame.

Lance kept torturing her when he was asking Hunk about how the repairing went (he also learnt a few things about Keith being absolutely awful with any type of handicraft other than drawing and tattooing, but that didn’t matter at the time), before actually turning to Pidge with the most serious look on his face. She was  _ frightened,  _ these were supposed to be the good news, but didn’t seem like that at all. Pidge’s excitement flattened, but she was still willing to hear whatever Lance wanted to tell her, she didn’t run there for nothing. Eventually, he told her everything and she went  _ insane. _ Exactly like Lance when he was younger, but times one hundred, which was — bad, but funny nonetheless.

Nothing important happened during these two weeks, him and Keith actually managed to talk more than Lance thought they would. But the Saturday, the day of his second tattoo session wasn’t working out as planned. Well, technically it was, because Lance did everything. He packed his skincare products into his bag, because he promised him that they’ll get through them as quickly as possible, which was supposed to be two weeks before, but Lance had tendencies to forget about literally anything if he wasn’t reminded (that’s how he almost failed his senior college year’s finals).

He was currently walking around the shop, rocking the blue rose flower crown Coran had made for him. As he said, it was necessary to make people believe that all the shop workers were involved in their job. It was Lance’s second hour that day, Coran had changed his schedule to match his tattoo appointments, Lance was taking a few extra hours from Monday to Friday, but at least his Saturdays were mostly off. He had a few extra flower crowns hung on his wrist and he was giving them to the people passing by the shop. He wasn’t trying to shove them into their hands, but gently ask if they didn’t want to give someone a present, or just simply match the spring aesthetic that started blooming recently. Lance’s techniques were definitely effective, because by the end of his shift he only had one, red flower crown left in his hand.

“Coran! Coran, have you seen my bag?” Lance shouted to his boss, looking around the whole shop, as he learnt he only had ten remaining minutes before he would be going to the parlor. “I really have to get going! Romelle, maybe you?” He also called for his coworker, but she was even scattier than him, so he doubted she would actually help him, but it was still better than nothing.

“Here you go, my boy!” Coran came out of his office, holding Lance’s bag by its strap and quickly handed it to him. “If you need a ride, I can close the shop earlier today,” he offered, placing the papers he brought on the counter, ready to start filling them in.

“No, I’ve got my car, so you don’t have to bother about that one, Coran. Thanks anyways,” Lance shook his head, but smiled widely at the older man. He couldn’t believe someone who was described to be his boss could ever be this nice. But Coran was more of an old friend, an uncle even, than an actual boss and both Lance and Romelle liked it.

Lance quickly grabbed his bag and rushed to the car, unbothered by the fact that this little flower crown was still hanging loosely on his wrist. He decided to keep it here, maybe he would just throw it away on his way, or something, because now he had  _ no  _ excess time to care about things like this.

“Hey, Keith?” He called, when said boy picked up the phone. “I’m driving, yes, uh–huh, okay. No, Madre Dios, Keith, I’m not stupid, I have a hands–free!” He shouted, surprised by the fact that Keith thought this little of him. Lance could be a little stupid sometimes, but not to the point when he was driving with a phone in his hand, it never happened to him and he primsied himself that it never will. “Yeah, I know I should have gone earlier, but I had a few things to do at work and I’m  _ really  _ in a rush now! I’m trying, okay? You can’t judge me, you have a freaking  _ motorbike  _ with you!” Lance kept yelling at his new friend, but he couldn’t stop his lips from curling up a little.

The ride was fast, faster than Lance thought, he was only three minutes late, he checked. It wasn’t bad compared to his very first appointment, but still, he wasn’t fully pleased with himself. Keith probably wasn’t going to be as well, but that wasn’t a thing Lance was really concerned about then. He tried not to crash his car, which actually had happened once in the past, Pidge endlessly teased him about it, but nevermind. He parked after twenty minutes, rushing to the door and slamming them open. He was way more comfortable than two weeks before and he liked it.

“Hey!” Allura greeted him as soon as he entered the place. His nose wrinkled when he smelled this weird smell, impossible to describe but yet still he knew exactly what it was. “You’re a little late, but that’s not a problem at all, we were having a break, actually,” she explained, but Lance couldn’t pay attention to these words. He was looking around like a madman until he’s spotted Keith sitting on the small table.

He was even prettier than before, rocking a tank top a little more loose than the one he was wearing two weeks before. His bangs pinned back from his forehead, so he could see everything perfectly. Now Lance could have a perfect view on him, these perfect, soft facial features. Something was odd in them, but Lance didn’t care at all. Keith was smiling, probably the cutest thing the Cuban boy had ever seen, even if he wasn’t ready to admit it out loud. But the thing that had caught Lance’s attention was a little something in between Keith’s fingers. A cigarette. This perfect fucking boy smoked, not that Lance was opposed, but it was definitely unexpected.

“You smoke,” he said before he even realized he’d thought about it. Stating an obvious fact was weird in this situation, but it wasn’t something Lance couldn’t live with.

“I do,” Keith exhaled slowly, smoke surrounding his face. It definitely looked like a scene from some sort of a movie, but everything happening in Lance’s life was sometimes considered a movie, so it wasn’t anything really weird. “But ‘kay, we have plenty of work to do today, ‘s better if we get goin’,” he put the cigarette out into the ashtray and quickly went to Room Three, now with a repaired air conditioning. “Why do you look like… this?” He asked, pointing at Lance’s  _ everything _ , because he really looked a bit weird. He wore light blue, jeans overalls and an oversized, yellow t-shirt underneath. But these weren’t the most odd things, Keith was truly more concerned about the flower crown on Lance’s  _ wrist,  _ who does that?

“Oh, yeah, I work at the flower shop and that’s how we have to look like. I’ve probably mentioned that already, but I really don’t know anymore. I was working right before I came here, so yeah, I’m not in my best shape now,” he laughed, placing his bag on the floor. Keith silently pointed at Lance’s wrist, millions of questions written on his face. “Oh, this? We had to promote our shop, it’s called ‘Cinnamon’, don’t ask me why,” he sat on his chair and stretched his arm in Keith’s direction and watched him preparing everything. “So, yeah, we were walking around the street and giving the crowns to people passing by, but I had one left and didn’t have time to leave it there. I have an idea! Wear it.”

Keith froze.

It was stupid,  _ so fucking stupid,  _ yet still impossibly adorable and he couldn’t say no to it. It was also red, which matched his today’s outfit perfectly. Lance almost choked when he saw Keith actually wearing it. This man could look like a God himself in anything, that definitely wasn’t fair. Plus, the scent, now reminding Lance of fruit ice cream his mom used to make when he was a kid, it was nice and pleasing. Less sweet than the previous one he wore, but it somehow matched perfectly with cigarettes, maybe they were fruit flavored? Lance had no idea about how cigarettes worked and he didn’t really feel the need to learn about it.

“So, um, I was thinkin’ a lot ‘bout your friend, what was her name? Can’t remember that, nevermind. I think she could come during our forth appointment, we gotta reschedule a bit, so listen closely. I told ya colorin’ will start about appointment four, but I think it’d be more like five, if your friend’s gonna come. Not like it’s a problem, though. We were still plannin’ on havin’ seven sessions, the last one’d be the longest, that’s at worst. That okay?” Keith asked, starting to outline Lance’s forearm. He nodded, fighting between shutting his eyes and looking at Keith’s face. The second option was apparently winning and who would Lance be to try and sabotage it?

“Also, ouch,  _ Keith!  _ Okay, also, I brought my skincare products, well, only those which I use for my whole body, because my facial ones would be useless here, right? Probably, but Pidge, that’s the friend you’ll be tattooing, says that all of the creams I use are stupid and unnecessary, but she’s wrong! Her skin is  _ so fucking dry,  _ and of course, she still won’t let me use my skincare on her! I don’t understand it, but okay, it’s her who’s missing all the fun, not me. And you know, I’ve done some research at home and I think none of my creams are bad for tattoos, but I’m not really one hundred percent sure, so I think you’ll still have to look at them, yeah. I wish I could research properly, but I started late at night and had job at nine, so I couldn’t really pull an all nighter, I’d be dead the next morning if I did,” Lance knew he was slipping away from the topic he started with, but talking kept his mind unfocused on the pain in his forearm, as it was steadily getting more and more painful the closer to his wrist it got. Keith had told him it was a good thing he didn’t choose to have tattoos on the inside of his arm as well.

Keith had it and even though he was experienced with tattoos, he wasn’t lying when he said it hurt like hell. Shiro had to stop every five seconds, because his brother even started sobbing at the beginning. Now they were laughing at it but it got really scary when it was new, especially when Keith’s arm started bleeding. It wasn’t much, just about what Lance’s was doing now, but Keith freaked out then, completely. Lance was doing a lot better for his first tattoo, he only winced in pain like… three times, which wasn’t much at all, compared to how Keith used to react.

“Dios Mio, Keith! You need to listen to that one story, yes, I just recalled it, don’t judge me. Ow, can you  _ not!? _ Okay, I’m back, be gentle, please. Nevermind, listen! We were in college, me, Pidge and Hunk and we were in the engineering classroom, helping Hunk with his project. You know, his prof told him it was possible to bring people from different majors, it was a really hard task to do alone. And, Keith, don’t laugh, or well, you can, because we all laughed as well. We blew up the whole place, Hunk’s project was on fire, alarms were blaring, people were evacuating and we didn’t take midterms because of it! Oh God, what a wild time, I miss it. And somehow, I ended up in a fucking  _ flower shop,  _ but do I regret? Probably not, sometimes it gets boring, but I like flowers, my abuela had a flower shop when she was a little younger, but had to sell it, unfortunately. Yeah, and then, in college, me and Pidge were banned from using an engineering area for  _ forever!  _ I still can’t get over that, to be honest,” Lance didn’t realize how much he was talking, he never really did.

He just went with the flow, watching Keith’s cheeks flush with a faint shade of pink, because this room was still a little hot. This appointment was surprisingly short, maybe three hours, probably not even, but Lance’s skin was really perfect for this sort of job. The tattoo gun was moving smoothly, even easier than on Shiro’s skin,  _ and that meant something.  _ Shiro had a flawless skin, not a single pimple on it. Body toned, muscular, with a thin layer of fat on the top, so tattooing didn’t hurt that bad. Adam was lucky to have this guy as his fiancé, no doubt.

“‘kay, session finished,” Keith quickly wrapped Lance’s forearm with foil, repeating what he said during the previous appointment. “Now, we can sit wherever you’d like and take a look at those ungodly skincare products you’ve got,” Keith laughed and Lance’s heart skipped a beat. Yes,  _ he wanted to befriend him more. _

They sat on the floor, Keith had brought a nice, comfy and fluffy carpet during these two weeks, because sitting on blank tiles wouldn’t be the best idea. Keith was running through Lance’s creams (this boy had over fifteen of them, holy shit!) and explaining which ingredients could be possibly dangerous with ink, so they ended up eliminating three strongly scented ones, but the rest of them were fine. Keith had unintentionally placed his fingers on either of Lance’s palms, he didn’t know why, it just happened, but neither of them realized it then. Keith’s crown moved to the side of his head, making him look messy, but Lance liked it and chuckled when his friend immediately went to fix it. It was all working out, Hunk didn’t tell him about it,  _ again.  _ How was Lance supposed to know he would be stuck with this cute, weird but friendly, sometimes savage, tattoo artist who started developing to be his friend. Hunk didn’t warn him about how gentle Keith’s hands would be, how his smile would brighten up Lance’s day, Hunk didn’t fucking warn him that people like Keith even  _ exist. _

“Hey,” Lance jumped and landed painfully on his butt when someone entered the room. As he quickly realized, it was Shiro with his stupidly handsome face and even more stupid smile. He wasn’t Lance’s type, too muscular, but undoubtedly a beautiful human being.  _ Adam was hell more than lucky.  _ Shiro also wore eyeliner, perfectly shaped, thin wings Lance had aspired to do but failed each time.

“You like scaring my customers like that?” Keith asked, a pinch of annoyance slipping through his usual, playful tone. Lance knew he was faking it to mess with his brother. “Told you not to disturb me when I’m workin’,” he continued, shaking one of Lance’s creams for emphasis. 

“I just thought it would be better if I come and tell you that I planned something with Adam and I’ll be out for the rest of the day,” Shiro explained, leaning against the door. Lance now noticed a little tragus piercing Keith’s brother had, another thing to be jealous of. “The last time you didn’t let me enter our apartment, remember?” He added, only because Lance was here and Shiro was absolutely sure Keith didn’t bother to mention it. But that’s what you have siblings for, right?

“‘cause you came back at two in the fuckin’ night! Don’ you know people are  _ asleep  _ by that time?” Keith shouted at his brother, gesturing this hard that Lance had to move a little farther so he wasn’t knocked out with Keith’s fist. “I could’ve let you in if I wasn’t fuckin’ sleepin’!” Lance found Keith’s ways of defending himself extremely cute, especially with all these tattoos and a flower crown. “Besides, I don’ think you have to tell any of us ‘bout it, we already know you like dates better than workin’,” now Keith started laughing, leaving Shiro with a confused face expression.

“Okay, okay, little brother. At least I’m not denying my flirting,” he winked and now Lance was the one who didn’t know what was going on. Keith wasn’t flirting, was he? At least it wasn’t anything Lance could be aware of. So he immediately assumed it wasn’t an actual thing. If anyone was flirting, then it was definitely Adam, shamelessly occupying Shiro’s lap in the lobby.

“I’m not flirtin’ with anyone!” Keith argued, his voice high pitched and angry.  _ See, he wasn’t flirting. _

“Sure you aren’t,” Shiro smiled, his eyes wrinkling slightly and his muscles relaxing, as he still stood in the exact same position. Keith exhaled the nonexistent smoke from the bottom of his lungs, seeing Lance who was practically choking on air while laughing. Cute view, indeed.

“Yeah, just go already! And tell Adam to come over and cook somethin’, I’m not riskin’ my life eatin’ your food anymore,” Shiro knew it was over by then. He had fun, Keith was annoyed (but had fun nonetheless) and Lance was  _ definitely  _ amused. His daily goal was achieved. He shut the door and a faint giggle of Adam’s could be heard from the lobby.

“He’s really  _ this  _ bad at cooking?” Lance asked when he finally managed to breathe somehow properly. “I mean, I know people who can’t cook, but to  _ kill  _ others with it, that’s a new thing.”

“Yeah,” Keith smiled, a tender feeling spreading across his chest as Lance spoke up, voice soft and giggly. “Once, when I was younger, he kept sayin’ he will make dinner for me and Adam, they were together for a year then. So he did, he made this stupid dinner, yeah? And we all ended up with food poisonin’, you can’t imagine how shaming it was to cancel… four appointments that day. And the next day, and a few more days. This guy can’t cook for shit, don’ fall for his face, he’s terrible!” Something in the way Keith was talking about his brother didn’t click for Lance. Keith was constantly smiling, even while bickering with Shiro, his eyes were filled with pride and pure happiness, Lance couldn’t figure it out yet, but it was already on his to–do list.

“Sounds like my older brother Marco,” Lance ignored the weird feeling Keith made him feel.

They even hugged goodbye, talked on the phone late at night, Lance was finally feeling alive, more than when he blew up the campus, which meant  _ something. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!!
> 
> contact me on twitter @spritzerrrr !
> 
> remember you're all doing amazing, I love you all equally, keep doing your best guys!!!


	4. session no.3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, they are friends now and Lance gets suspicious. Shiro to the rescue!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally, it's here!! i'm genuinely sorry y'all have to wait so long,,, but i got a lot of stuff to do and lost my motivation for a while, but i'm back!
> 
> enjoy the chapter!!

Keith Kogane was by no means a lucky guy. His life had always been like… this, full of disadvantages, failures and other funny stuff. Not that he complained about it, it just happened, was there and he got to accept it. He always tried to outdo it, sometimes it even worked, but _never_ when it came to his brother. Shiro was a perfect definition of a pain in the ass, especially when he was in love, just like now. Keith wasn’t that lucky, though he kept insisting that he was completely fine alone. Plot twist, he wasn’t, but Shiro didn’t have the right to invade his brother’s privacy. But if he did invade it or not – it was a fairly different story. Takashi was anything but subtle, but somehow, _thank whoever is controlling the world,_ didn’t comment (well, maybe once?) on Keith’s relationship with Lance, which was, let’s state it clear, _strictly professional,_ though some friendship was beginning to develop.

Keith wanted to be lucky, definitely. Lance was someone like that, he could do anything, say anything and always come to what he wanted to achieve since the very beginning. Keith couldn’t just simply understand that, how the hell did that boy manage to be so perfect at everything? Even the way he _talked,_ or whatever was that, spitting words like rifle bullets, was ideal and way less annoying that Keith assumed it would be. It was sometimes _interesting,_ somehow involving even. But as much as he would like to, Lance’s words couldn’t save Keith from being the fool he was.

It happened when he was coming back home with Shiro, whose yet another date with Adam ended earlier than planned, official reason being Takashi who wanted to spend time with his little brother, but the truth was Adam had to go to his office and finish his paperwork. Keith was always clumsy, Shiro knew that, so why did he even think that shoving Keith when they were on the _stairs_ could be a good idea? Nothing happened, apparently. Nothing Shiro was aware of back then, but Keith could’ve sworn he heard is ankle cracking and the sound was far away from _normal._ Nothing more than that could be bothering Keith by then, so the best decision he could make was to ignore it and focus on surviving the rest of the day.

Shiro wasn’t making his life any easier, especially when he started rambling about Adam. Keith wasn’t fond of listening about love, not only his brother’s sickeningly sweet type of love, but any type of it in general. Keith never thought he was capable of _flirting,_ not to mention constantly touching the hot boy’s chest, but we don’t talk about it.

“Can you shut up for a second?” He asked, visibly pissed. Both from Shiro’s talking and the phone that started ringing and _didn’t_ want to stop. “I’m not fuckin’ jokin’, ‘kashi! I’ve been listenin’ to you for two damn hours, lemme live,” he didn’t bother waiting for his brother to reply, he decided to answer the phone instead, not even looking at who was calling. “Yes, Keith Ko— what the _fuck_ , Lance!?” He still couldn’t get over the fact that Lance was calling him practically every day now and today shouldn’t have been this surprising, it was only a day before their third session. “You always take— _No,_ ‘kashi, you don’t deserve to say hi to Lance, no, _don’t pull this look,_ I fuckin’ dare you— what was I? Hey—” he stopped right when Lance started laughing uncontrollably, quiet snorts hearable in the background, one of his friends was most likely visiting him at that time. “‘kay, I get you, I’m _so_ funny you can’t stop calling me, right?” He finally managed to say something more than a few words interrupted by a new wave of laughter mid–sentence.

_“More like handsome!”_ He heard a girly, muffled voice yelling at him, more like at Lance, probably, but it was hilarious nonetheless. Who knew Lance was thinking about him like _that? “Give me that damn phone back, loverboy! Hey, this is Pidge, whatever Lance had told you about me is not true, I’m an awesome friend, if I can brag. Lance told me you agreed to— Lance, I swear to God, I am having an important conversation here! Jesus, he’s annoying.”_

_“You know I can hear you, right?”_ Lance emphasized the ‘right’ in his statement, sounding even more than offended. Now Keith had realized what it felt like when Lance had to listen to him and his other tattoo shop friends mess around like that.

_“Wouldn’t be as much fun if you weren’t around,”_ Pidge replied, her usual, sassy voice present. Lance secretly liked it, but definitely not when she used it to insult him like that.

“‘kay, it’s all super funny ‘n’ stuff, but is there any apparent reason why you’re calling me?” Keith didn’t mind it, obviously, but he wouldn’t like being just some distraction or the last person you choose, because nobody else is responding. That would be bad, and Keith didn’t like _bad_ , as _bad_ felt like the sharp pain in his ankle, now increasing out of nothing. “Would be nice if you turned the speaker on and talked together, instead of tryin’ to steal the phone from each other,” Keith suggested through another wave of laughter. It came out like a bunch of weird, snort–like sounds, a few wheezes and one or two actual words, but both Lance and Pidge somehow understood the true meaning of his statement.

_“What a wise man! You sure have a taste, Lance!”_ Pidge yelled, making Keith put his phone slightly farther from his face, because the shout almost hurt his ears and he wasn’t fond of going deaf from talking to Lance’s friend. _“Aw, don’t make that face, Lance, you know I mean it! Okay, so yeah, it was Lance’s idea to phone you, but he somehow forgot that I was in his flat then—"_

_“Because you’re so tiny!”_ Lance chimed in, doing something that could be probably tickling, from the wheezing sounds Pidge began to make.

_“Back to the— Lance, I swear! Okay, sto— stop it, fine! Okay, I surrender! But let me talk, does Saturday in two weeks suit you? Cool if doesn’t, but Lance here had given me your schedule and I thought his next appointment would be a good opportunity,”_ Keith was surprised by the serious tone Pidge had pulled out, because she sounded like a chilled person, just like Lance, but people are more complex, Keith had known that already.

“‘kashi, can you pass me the food?” He yelled at his brother, covering the speaker, but Lance’s laughter still filled the room. A soft sound, impossibly cute.

“Can’t you walk and grab it yourself?” Shiro’s voice was playful, he was sitting on the counter, eating take–out spring rolls straight from the bowl they came in. Both him and Keith _could_ technically cook, but being a tattoo artist consumed most of their time and Adam couldn’t always come over to prepare food for the next day.

“Um, _no?_ I’ve been _workin’_ for the whole damn day, while you were enjoyin’ yourself with Adam, you can do somethin’ for me,” again, Keith’s voice was a mixture of soft tone and blaming words, Lance and Pidge froze in place, completely involved in listening to these two. “ _Come on!_ I had to bring everything to you for what? Two months? You can do it once, it’s only your right arm that’s fucked up, not your legs, so _please,_ ” he was fully aware of the fact that he was whining and his new friends had to listen to him, but he didn’t care at all. “By the way, Pidge, Saturday is fine, just don’ be late, like _someone,”_ he emphasized the last word and he would be looking at Lance, but instead he just glanced at Shiro, who finally let go and passed him the remaining spring rolls, to which Keith nodded, visibly content with his brother’s behavior. “Thanks,” Lance could have sworn he _heard_ Keith smiling and it didn’t happen to any other than Hunk. But, it didn’t make sense, they were literally arguing a second ago, how the hell did they manage to switch it like that?

_“Okay, I really want to ask this one question now, stop me if this is inappropriate, but I just need to know,”_ Lance spoke up, regretting choosing these words immediately, but Keith didn’t say anything, so it probably wasn’t that bad after all. He took a shaky breath, Pidge by his side, wanting to ask the same question but not feeling comfortable enough. She didn’t know both Keith and Shiro, so she assumed she didn’t also have the right to invade their privacy. But she couldn’t lie that it was eating her up and she would thank Lance for asking for her. _“What’s with the way you’re talking to Shiro? I mean, you’re blaming him, but your voice sounds like pure compliments, I don’t understand this. What the hell do you mean you had to practically serve him for two months straight, huh?”_

Shiro froze with the last spring roll halfway to his lips. He placed it back in the bowl, looking at Keith, whose body was doing crazy things, his left foot bouncing heavily on the carpet. He bit his lip as his hand unintentionally slid down to his phone and put the speaker on full volume. It was left unnoticed, at least by him, because Shiro was left here concerned, but smiling. Lance’s question left the bitter aura in the whole room, Keith struggled to breathe and he could’ve sworn it would be possible to cut the air with a knife, though he wasn’t feeling like checking that one. He couldn’t be this obvious, come on, he was trying his best not to act like it was all affecting him in any way, but guess Lance was just a master in reading people.

Shiro wasn’t subtle, how the hell could he be while wearing a _metal prosthetic arm?_ But out of that, he was just a usual adult in his mid-thirties, working in a tattoo parlor, nothing was making him any different from other people. Both Shiro and his brother were usually living like nothing had ever happened and that was better, they weren’t keen on telling people about their past, it really didn’t matter if you took a look at their present. Knowing events that happened before couldn’t really change anything. Well, it _could_ , but never did, because they never told anyone. Adam was with them during the whole process, so he had to be privy to it, but nobody else than him knew.

“You didn’t tell him, right?” Shiro’s voice sounded genuinely concerned. He was a master in relationships and could easily tell that something was going on between Keith and Lance, so he really thought his brother would tell his new friend about what happened.

“I didn’t,” he answered sincerely, hearing a quiet gasp from the other side of the phone. “Fuck—” he muttered under his breath, forcing himself not to touch his ankle. Now he knew it was most likely sprained, but he still didn’t pay much attention to it, he had other things to care about.

_“Didn’t tell me about what!?”_ Lance unintentionally screamed, Pidge squeaking in the background. Nobody knew what was happening anymore. Everyone stood there, confused and Keith was forcing his tears back, he couldn’t just cry like that, because he didn’t have a reason at all. _“Guys? Okay, maybe my reaction was too much, guess I’m not used to all of this, I’m sorry,”_ he spoke up again and Keith was almost sure that he started melting when he heard the other boy’s soft voice, even softer than his own when he was talking about Shiro.

“I told you,” he spit out to Pidge’s confuseness, but she didn’t say a thing.

Shiro looked at him in awe, it was the first time when he had no idea about what his brother was doing. He used to always know what he was talking about with his clients, because it was never anything special, just a usual talk about treatments. But Lance was different, maybe a little like Adam, but he was just _someone else._ His words hung in the air, atmosphere getting impossibly thick again and for some indescribable reason Shiro thought it was all because of him, which was partly true, but Keith knew it was really him.

The worry settled in Lance’s voice, Keith was sure about that. He didn’t want that, because Lance had more than just a right to know, he deserved it, especially after seeing all of Keith’s tattoos. He smiled at the phone, then at his brother, how now _completely didn’t know_ what he should think about it.

“I told you that we’re not in that stage of relationship _yet,_ Lance, which doesn’t mean we won’t get there, eventually. You better get your ass to the shop tomorrow, if you wanna get your answers quicker,” he heard Lance squeak loudly and Pidge gasping, so he knew his job here was done – he entertained all of them, wiped out all of the sad feelings they were holding. The only thing that remained with him was _bad,_ this stupid pain he couldn’t get rid of since Shiro decided to mess with him on the stairs.

_“Noted, Keithy boy, don’t think I’ll forget about it!”_ Lance would poke Keith’s chest with his finger if they weren’t ten or so miles apart. _“Okay, we’re heading to Hunk now, so yeah, we should go, bye!”_ He hung up, leaving Keith sitting on the sofa ten inches away from Shiro, who fought the urge to phone Adam, but he knew that his brother needed him the most at that time.

They sat in silence, though not for long. Keith knew he had to talk to Shiro about it, because it was all about him, after all.

“You know you don’t have to tell him about it?” Shiro said, a bit hesitant, knowing that his brother was on the verge of breaking down. “Your friendship or whatever you have with Lance doesn’t equal you telling him about your past. Well, yes, it influenced your present, but he didn’t know you before, Keith. The way you talk to me… you can always tell him it’s because you love your brother _so much!”_ He emphasized his statement, laughing under his breath. He knew Keith would do everything to achieve what he wanted. “It’s your life and your past, Keith, he can’t force you to tell him if you don’t feel like doing it.”

Instead of actually answering him, Keith pulled out the metal lighter out of his jeans’ pocket and lit up the cigarette. He was aware that Shiro would most likely scold him for that, but he couldn’t really say much, as he also smoked inside, definitely more than Adam would like. He was usually the one to remind Keith and Shiro how bad smoking was, but neither of them listened, even if they were fully aware of the consequences. Keith exhaled slowly, looking his brother dead in the eyes, he knew he was waiting for his reply. He didn’t really know what he should tell him, he never had a friendship like that before, even Allura didn’t know the full story and they’ve been friends with her for quite some time now. It was weirder than he thought it would be, but he also didn’t feel like lying to Lance. He was sincere, Keith just _knew_ that one, the way he talked to him showed he didn’t have anything to hide and Keith, however, had a lot. Maybe not quite, he didn’t commit any sort of crime or anything like that, but it wasn’t a thing you randomly yell in the street. Not that there are some things you could yell, because shouting in general was not considered a good thing.

“I know,” he sighed, finally getting it all together to answer properly. “But it’s not like we are… in this, whatever, client–worker relationship, I think? You and Hunk had that one before you finished and started to befriend him. Maybe we, me and Lance, didn’t start at the very beginning, but—” he stopped to get yet another inhale, trying to find the best words to explain what him and Lance had. It would be a lot easier if he actually _knew_ what they were standing at. Was it professional, was it friendship, was it… whatever else it could be? “I sorta… wanna tell him? He deserves his answers, ‘kashi. He saw me shirtless, no, before you laugh, I was _not_ tryin’ to make things weirder, ‘kay? I took my top off ‘cuz the heating broke and it was hot, and Lance saw my tattoo,” he almost sounded ashamed of it, unintentionally. He really wasn’t, he was just tired and it came that way, even if it was a complete opposite. “I think he wants to be friends with me and I wanna be friends with him and in order to do that, I have to tell him.”

“Keith,” Shiro placed his arm on his brother’s shoulder, pulling him closer. “You know I only want the best for you and this situation involves me as much as it involves you, so you can do whatever you want, right? I see you start caring about him and it’s nice, because I’ve never seen you involved like that. I know what you want to ask me and my answer is yes, Keith, you have my permission to tell him, it’s not like I’m being subtle about it,” he laughed, shaking his prosthetic arm for emphasis and hearing Keith sigh with relief. He was finally ready to start his life again and Shiro couldn’t express how happy he was for him. Keith had trouble adjusting, especially after what happened, so seeing him this involved and… desperate, he would say, was the most important thing to Shiro. “You’re still my baby brother, right? My prosthetic arm doesn’t change anything. Okay, I’m gonna call Adam now, is that fine?”

Keith smiled right after the question had been asked. Shiro was a pain in the ass, but he had his famous ‘older brother’ or, even better, ‘dad’ voice he used every time Keith wasn’t feeling the best. He couldn’t ask for a better family and it wasn’t only about Shiro, but also Adam. He reunited them both when they weren’t really getting along and Keith couldn’t be more grateful.

“Yeah, go, you deserve it,” Keith was surprised that he actually said that. He would rather sabotage Shiro’s calling, because he was spending all of his time with Adam, but this one time was different. Shiro helped him figure out many things and stayed with him, even if nobody ordered him to, so he deserves to rest and talk to his boyfriend.

───────

The next day wasn’t treating Keith any better. Shiro had a day off, spending it working from home, but he didn’t know if it could be really considered ‘working’. He was planning on doing a few projects and finishing the biggest one from one of his clients, a huge tattoo on the back on which he was working for the past four days. His client had specifically stated his desires and Shiro had a huge problem trying to get it all right. He received about twenty pictures of similar designs, as well as a few sketches, but he still felt like it wasn’t enough help. If Keith didn’t have Lance’s tattoo to work on, he would definitely stay home and help his brother, because this one particular customer could have a strong influence on Shiro’s future, and he didn’t want to lose what he’d achieved before.

But Keith had his job to do as well, also trying not to cry from the steadily increasing pain in his ankle. Allura definitely _must’ve_ seen something, but she didn’t comment on that and Keith was grateful. He didn’t want people to think he was weird or anything, but for real, they’ve already thought he was, because of all of his tattoos. He didn’t care about it as much as he should, especially because he knew what was the meaning of most of the drawings.

“Hey!” Lance ran into the studio and Keith wondered if this boy even knew what the basis of etiquette are, probably not. It was his fourth appointment, session number three and he was still doing the same thing. Not that it didn’t cause Keith to smile, because, _God,_ this boy was absolutely amazing and Keith even forgave him this stupid question he asked yesterday. He couldn’t just know what was wrong with that, meaning Keith was upset over nothing. “Sorry I’m— late?” The way he chose words made his statement weird, or maybe it was all because this one particular appointment was scheduled on nine instead of the usual twelve, as Keith had too much work to do to manage. “But I have an excuse!” Lance shouted, heavily leaning against the counter. He heard Allura’s faint, cute giggle, but it didn’t faze him.

“It better be a good one,” Keith could barely hold it all together now, because Lance’s behavior made him lose his breath whenever he started laughing, which was like… twice every minute, and each laughter session had been going on for about twenty seconds. Not that he counted, he just knew when he couldn’t breathe it meant his laughter must’ve passed fifteen seconds. “Still, you were late for three minutes only, that’s a good one, Lance. But can you learn how to _open_ the fuckin’, door, it’s not like you can yeet it and nobody will care!”

He fucking said ‘yeet’ unironically, Lance laughed to himself.

“I have coffee!” He raised his hand in which he was holding a paper bag with two cups filled with a hot drink. That was definitely a valid reason to be late for three minutes, at least for Keith, who still didn’t have his morning coffee and usually he was after two at that time. “I didn’t know what kind you like, so I got the usual black with a shot of espresso, or two, I don’t remember, but I thought it would be nice in the morning. Oh, and I brought a few packs of sugar, brown and white, and also these weird packs of cream, I don’t know if you like it, we can put it somewhere, do you have a freezer or something? Yeah, we can put it there if you don’t feel like adding it in, okay. Allura, show me the way to the freezer!” He ran away with her, leaving Keith completely confused right there and then.

He couldn’t believe someone would be this… _something_ , to just enter the place _late_ with two cups of fucking _coffee_ and act like it was his home or whatever. Nobody did that, except for Shiro, but it _was_ his place after all. He bought it and he owned it, along with Allura, but she didn’t like to brag because of it. It didn’t really matter to her, as everyone was equal here, or at least they tried to seem like everyone was, but it was a story for another time. Keith could hear Lance shouting and laughing with Allura and it reminded him of a time when Shiro brought him there for the first time. He was only eighteen and it was a year before… the stuff that happened to his brother, but it was undoubtedly the best year in Keith’s life. Or it had been, but then he met Lance and how he wasn’t sure about anything. This boy kept doing weird things with Keith, he didn’t know if he wanted them to stop or to continue like they did, but he didn’t really have a choice. He was stuck with this boy for four more sessions, excluding the one that was supposed to start five minutes ago.

“Okay, it’s done now!” Lance yelled, dragging Allura with him and sitting her back behind the desk. He looked and acted as if he was some kind of a weird boss in this place. Well, Shiro hasn’t been here yet, so somebody had to replace him – this somebody being Lance. It really should have made Keith angry, but he couldn’t lie, only _having_ this boy here made him insanely happy and he didn’t want it to end, even if he thought about it all the time. Maybe it would end up with an amazing friendship like the one Allura and Shiro had, who knows? Keith wished for it to be true.

“Give it to me,” he grabbed coffee from Lance’s hand, their fingers brushing against one another for a millisecond, but enough to make both of them experience these well-known chills, but they only got more and more intense each time. Man, the heating could really do some weird things. “Can we go now?” He asked, already walking slowly to Room Three, placing his feet on the surface carefully, so he didn’t put too much pressure on his left ankle, which now was bruised if you pulled down his sock. He did that once and it looked so bad he didn’t want to experience that again. He was limping for sure, he even almost spilt his coffee once when he completely lost balance in his legs, but he was ninety nine percent sure nobody had seen him like that, so it was all fine.

“Come on, let’s get ready if you wanna start colorin’ the next time,” Keith said, plopping down to his stool and sighing with relief. He took one sip of his coffee before placing it on the table, nodding in Lance’s direction, making it his own silent ‘thank you’. “What the hell, Lance? Can you _please_ sit down so we can start?” He now couldn’t understand Lance’s behavior completely. Once, he was super cool and happy and a second before he looked at Keith with literally the ugliest frown possible. Keith was _bad_ with emotions and Lance wasn’t helping it at all with that weird behavior.

“No,” he answered, approaching Keith and placing both of his hands on his own hips. Keith’s mind told him that Lance looked like a model, but that wasn’t a real point here. What was it, Keith couldn’t tell. “We’re not starting until you tell me what happened to your leg, Keith. Don’t get me wrong, I also want to have this tattoo done relatively quickly, but _man,_ you’re literally fucking _limping!_ It’s not how a healthy person should walk and it’s real damn worrying,” he explained, kneeling down and touching Keith’s ankle with two of his fingers, to which the tattoo artist reacted by a quiet groan. “See, it hurts. Tell me now so I can help and we can get to the tattoo quicker, okay?”

_“Why are you single? How the fuck is that even possible?"_ Keith thought and was more than thankful that he didn’t say that out loud.

“It’s nothin’, Shiro and I were casually shoving each other on the stairs, a sibling thing, you know it. I must’ve stood wrong, but it’s really no big deal,” he tried, now realizing how painful it was to even move this damn ankle, when Lance had finally pointed it out. “I can manage for today.”

“ _Manage for today,_ my ass, Keith! You didn’t use a bandage to keep it steady, bet you didn’t even think about using some cooling ointment, did you? _And_ you didn’t tell Shiro, am I right? Of course, Dios Mio! Can you move it a little towards me, please?” Lance went from blaming Keith to carefully looking at his ankle, trying not to touch it too much, because he could see how he was hurting. “Where do you have the first aid kit? You have one, right? You have to have it, Keith, it’s a _tattoo shop!_ Okay, okay, I have it. Now, you have to cooperate with me, good?” He tenderly grabbed Keith’s ankle and rubbed the cream in his skin, which left Keith hissing and almost panting in pain. “I know, okay, I know. If you could look away, please? Awesome, Keith, you’re all good. I’m going to wrap your ankle with a bandage, I hope that’s fine. Yes, I know it hurts, but it’s for the better, trust me,” Lance kept whispering random words after that, just like he did when one of his younger siblings was hurt and needed comforting.

“Lance, it’s _fuckin’—_ so stupid and it _hurts!”_ He yelped, but was glad it didn’t turn out to be broken, because now he knew he wouldn’t be able to survive setting it. It already hurt like hell and he didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like if it got worse. He was actually glad that he met Lance and that he was there, because Keith’s ankle would turn out to be more messed up if he didn’t do anything.

“I know, but I really want to make it better, you’ll thank me later,” he finished wrapping Keith’s ankle and gently set it back on the floor or, more like, on a rolled up piece of material he’d found somewhere in the room. “You’re all set now, Keith, but you need to promise me that you’ll go to the doctor after you’re finished for today. And if you don’t, keep in mind that I know Hunk who can always phone Shiro and ask him if you went. So, you try lying and I immediately know about it,” Lance laughed, knowing that he probably wouldn’t use this for real, but he really cared about Keith and wanted everything good for him. “We can start now, if you’re up to that.”

“‘course I’m up to that, we’ll never finish if we keep this up,” he answered quickly, grabbing his gloves and getting to outline the rest of Lance’s forearm. “‘kay, you know if you wanna have your bicep colored? It’s important, ‘cuz I dunno how much time it’ll take,” he asked, holding Lance’s arm with his own fingers and sticking the gun right to it. Lance didn’t even frown this time, he must’ve got used to it before, which was pretty surprising to Keith, but he guessed Lance just had an impossibly high pain tolerance.

“I don’t think so. I literally know no shit about tattooing, but, you know, I work at the flower shop, so I know a little about design, and I think the geometric outlines will look better without any color in them. But you know better, at least I think so, or Hunk knows— or no, he doesn’t! He’s got only these black symbols, Shiro would know what I’m talking about. Oh! Shiro could know better as well, but he’s not there, right? Maybe—” he started rambling like crazy, causing Keith to place his finger on Lance’s lips, because he could have sworn that nothing else would work on him.

“To the point, Lance,” he couldn’t hide a smile forming on his face, no matter how hard he tried to do it. “We really don’ have time to be decidin’ for hours, so just tell me what you want, I know you already know what you want, so c’mon,” Keith held Lance’s arm a little tighter, when he started unexpectedly moving in visible excitement. “Jeez, can you hold still for a moment? We’re like… halfway done for today, but we can pick the tone and color one flower, so you see how it goes and how it’s gonna heal, ‘kay?”

“Sounds cool,” Lance answered, humming in contentment. He watched Keith get done with outlining, his hands moving impossibly fast yet gently. Lance could feel his cold fingers brushing against his own skin. Lance could never say that anyone would do things with him like Keith did. He didn’t know what to think or how to react, he guessed that his plan on befriending this cute tattoo artist was finally working out. The only thing was that – Lance kept getting flustered around Keith and whenever he thought about him. Pidge absolutely _loved_ teasing him about it, though Lance grew to accept it, somehow. He couldn’t get his eyes off Keith, his hair now falling and curling on his shoulders, his perfect, almost violet eyes focused on the work he was doing, his hands, his— his _everything._ It was all too beautiful not to look at it, even if Lance had known him only for a month.

Keith started mixing a few inks to get the perfect color Lance had described during their very first appointment. Lance was amazed by the fact how he could remember it all, because, if he had to be sincere, he didn’t even remember what they were talking about back then, but he was glad that Keith did. It only showed that he cared about his customers, or friends, whoever Lance was to him.

“Is this one good?” Keith asked, placing the container near Lance, so he could have a closer look at it. Lance would literally take whatever he had given to him, so he didn’t even have to look at the color for long. It was perfect, like every other thing Keith did. Lance nodded vigorously, showing that he was way more than only content with what Keith had presented to him. “Cool, we’ll do it then,” he changed the tip of the tattoo gun and quietly warned Lance that this one might sting a little, since it will be covering way bigger parts of his skin. It hurt like hell, but Lance could only focus on Keith’s tender touch, to be honest. It made the whole process bearable, sometimes even pleasing. They sat in silence when Keith was coloring the very first flower. When Lance finally glanced at his arm, he got… mesmerized, amazed, just excited and happy _as hell._ It looked better than anything he would’ve ever expected.

“This— It’s— Dios Mio, Keith! This is— _wow!_ Just, yeah,” as soon as Keith heard it, he started laughing and Lance couldn’t help but think that Hunk didn’t do the best job with repairing the heating in this room. The sound was the prettiest one Lance had ever heard and he couldn’t even think straight anymore. “How are you so— so _perfect_ at it? It’s impossible!”

“Years of practicin’, plus Shiro taught me a lot,” his smile was the sweetest and Lance kept getting caught off guard by it. “But thanks, Lance. It took me much time to get where I’m today. ‘kay, we’re finished for now, you know how to take care of the tattoo,” he watched Lance slowly stand up and walk to the exit, but Keith somehow managed to stand up and don’t fall at the same time, so he immediately approached him, grabbing Lance’s wrist to stop him. “Wait, I wanted— thank you, Lance,” he pulled him into a tight hug, which looked a little funny, since he had to slightly stand on his toes to reach Lance’s neck. “For… patching up my ankle and just— everything,” he struggled with finding the best words, but Lance didn’t mind. He buried his face in Keith’s locks, smelling this sweet, vanilla scent once again.

“That’s what friends are for, silly,” Lance said, breaking the hug and holding Keith’s hand for a literal millisecond, but it was enough for Keith to lose it all, but the feeling he felt was definitely positive. “I’ll call you when I get home, okay?” Lance didn’t have to wait, Keith nodded eagerly and waved at Lance while he was exiting the room.

_|11:25AM| kashi he brought me coffee!! also I have to go to the hospital, my ankle’s sprained_

_|11:26AM| KASHI I’M DOOMED HE IS SO FUCKIN CUTE_

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave your feedback below!
> 
> this day is for sure gonna be your day, i bet!!!


	5. session no.4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting better and better each day, but they still can’t figure out the heating problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF  
> it took me only four days to write, which is damn impressive!!
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter!!

“Pidge! Pidge, it’s awesome, you’re gonna have a tattoo!” Lance kept yelling at his friend, who was now in his apartment, trying her best not to lose it. Lance was incredibly annoying, a little less when he wasn’t talking about Keith, but still, it was almost impossible to listen to him without interrupting. Pidge tried hard to keep up with him, but, to be honest, she lost track about ten minutes before. He kept rambling without even realizing that nobody was paying attention to him. “I really can’t believe it! I thought he wouldn’t really agree, because he’s got so many things to work on, plus, we don’t know each other for long, not even two months, but he actually did! Jesus, Pidge, he’s amazing, you don’t know that, or you do. Well, you do, from me, but you didn’t meet him. You’re going to like him, I know it, you liked him when we talked on the phone, at least you seemed like it,” he took a quick breath when he realized he’d been talking without any breaks.

Pidge stared at him for a while, then glanced back at Hunk, who was just sipping on his coffee, holding back his laughter. Lance sounded almost like he was getting married in literally no time and both of his friends were impossibly entertained by his behavior. He was jumping on the sofa and made Hunk almost spill his drink once or twice, but he didn’t comment on that, watching his friend silently was a way better idea. His excitement would be spilling out of his ears if it was actually possible, Pidge even imagined that and it only made her snort, so she quickly decided to abort thinking about it.

“Hunk, no! Don’t laugh at me and don’t stain my sofa, please! It’s got stains, but I don’t want more of them, okay? You’re just jealous Pidge is getting her tattoo done, even though you’ve already got one, but I don’t know the way you think, Hunk, I can’t read minds! And Pidge, I think I should tell you all about the stuff you need to know about tattooing, but I don’t really know, Keith will tell you for sure, he always does that! He says that he can’t memorize it for shit, even though he tells that to people multiple times a day. It’s weird, even  _ I _ know what he says and he still doesn’t, it’s weird—” he paused, because Pidge slowly stood up and patted his thigh, laughing.

“Me and Hunk are gonna go home now, Matt had just messaged me saying that mom needs me for something,” she showed Lance her phone as if she was trying to prove that she wasn’t lying. Apparently, she really wasn’t. “It was  _ really  _ nice talking to you, but we have to get going now. You can pick me up from my apartment tomorrow, if it’s not a problem,” she smiled brightly, knowing that Lance would still agree on that, even if she asked him tomorrow, ten minutes before their appointment. She just exited the room, Hunk following her quickly.

Lance was left here, still smiling and listening to the faint sound of the TV. It was Friday afternoon and he was slowly getting ready for tomorrow’s appointment. He was going to share this particular one with Pidge, but he didn’t really mind that, to be honest. He genuinely loved his friend and was glad that she finally could make one of her dreams come true. It was even better that it was kind of because of him, it just made Lance impossibly happy.

His phone rang and he looked at it, visibly surprised. Of course, it was Keith who called him, nobody besides him would call at that time. Pidge and Hunk had just left, so they couldn’t, Lance’s family always called either in the morning or at night, so it couldn’t be them either. Keith always called completely unexpectedly, but Lance was pleased with it more than he’d like to admit. It was like they were in a weird long distance relationship when they phoned each other once a week or so, but the truth looked even funnier. They were on the phone every day, sometimes a few times  _ a day,  _ but they acted so starved of each other that it looked hilarious as hell. Shiro would comment on that every damn day, but deep in his heart he was extremely proud that his brother moved on from some bad events that happened and was finally getting it all together again.

Keith just didn’t really have a life before, but after Lance came in, it all changed completely. His days after work weren’t filled with sketching mostly, well, he was still doing that, because it was what he did for  _ a living,  _ but while drawing he could ramble about Lance for hours. What Lance had said on the phone, what picture had he sent to Keith in the morning, what bouquet had he just designed, what they were talking about during their sessions, what fun Lance and his friends had. It was just Lance, Lance and Lance all the time. Shiro started to understand what it was like to listen to him while he was talking about Adam.

“Yes, Keith? To what do I owe the honor of you calling me?” Lance answered, laughing, even more when he heard all the noises in the background. Whenever Keith was, he probably shouldn’t be calling Lance at that exact time. He couldn’t even hear Keith properly, but it changed after a minute or so, he must’ve gone to some quieter place.

_ “‘lura dragged us to the mall and I’m bored,” _ he answered simply, then covered the mic and yelled something to… probably Shiro, at least it sounded like it was him from the way Keith was talking.  _ “It’s stupid, I didn’t sign up for this shit! She’s draggin’ us to every damn shop here and I don’ really see any purpose? Tell me Pidge doesn’t do that, or you, because if you do, Lance, if you spend five fuckin’ hours shoppin’ then we’re gettin’ divorced, got that?” _ He probably didn’t realize what he said until Shiro chimed in, laughing.

_ “You’re already getting divorced, Keith? Why didn’t I get the chance to meet your husband before he officially becomes your ex, huh? You hate your brother that much, it’s awful, Keith!”  _ Lance was listening to Shiro and trying his best to process what was going on,  _ again.  _ Keith and his friends were chaotic, somehow, he could never say what they were talking about while being on the phone. Lance thought it probably was pretty similar to how he was acting around Pidge and Hunk, but it was still weird looking at it from the other side.

_ “What the hell, ‘kashi!? I’m not— wait, what?”  _ Yes, Keith definitely wasn’t aware of the stuff he said, not until now.  _ “This is not funny, ‘lura! What the actual fuck, I didn’t— Lance, you know I didn’t mean— Not you too, Adam, I swear to God! Lance, it’s not what I— No, don’t listen to them, God, no!”  _ Lance kept listening to him rambling like crazy and he couldn’t lie – he loved to hear Keith talk. He didn’t seem to be this really talkative type, but he was slowly becoming one, at least near Lance.  _ “I’m leavin’ and you can do whatever you want with this information,”  _ from what Lance could hear, Shiro was definitely offended by what Keith said. He probably didn’t care much, as Lance heard him leave the room, or the shop, or wherever he actually was.

“What was that, huh? Divorce? I didn’t know we were even dating, Keith,” Lance laughed, as soon as he was finally able to hear Keith and Keith only, well, minus all the people in the mall, or at the driveway, he had no idea where Keith actually went. “Oh, come on, you called me because you were bored, so let me entertain you!”

_ “Not you too, Lance! I didn’t mean to say that, the divorce thing, I mean. Adam says it all the time, it just… started to have a shitty influence on me, ‘kay? I dunno why this is so funny for y’all and I think I don’ wanna know,”  _ Keith kept arguing with actually nobody, trying to tell them that it wasn’t true at all and Lance felt like he was listening a never-ending monologue, but it wasn’t so bad after all.  _ “You gotta believe me, ‘kay? I know you say stuff like that as well, you look like a person who does! And you entertain me enough, thank you very much! If you wanna make fun of someone, do it with your friends, because my fuckin’ ones laugh at me already, I don’ need you to do the same thing,”  _ After that, Lance felt something. The tone of Keith’s voice was steadily dropping until it reached the sweet one he used towards Shiro. The same soft–blaming one Lance couldn’t understand at all. But it turned out to feel extremely nice deeply in Lance’s heart, like a heat flooding into his whole body. It was definitely  _ cool,  _ Lance didn’t want it to stop, that was why he couldn’t interrupt Keith at all, so he just ended up listening to whatever he had to say.

_ “But listen, Lance, I was really fuckin’ bored, ‘cuz who does that? Who the hell thinks that shopping can be  _ **_entertaining_ ** _? ‘Cuz I don’, you’re just wastin’ time! I mean, I could  _ **_technically_ ** _ go shopping with you, but that’s technically, Lance, don’ get the wrong idea! Well, you’ve got all of those skincare products, whatever, but it doesn’t take much time to buy them, yeah? Maybe… maybe it does? Fuck! Lance, does it?”  _ He asked, catching Lance completely off guard. He wasn’t ready to answer any sort of questions, especially if they were heavily explained before. Because, to be honest, Lance was only involved in the  _ way  _ Keith was talking, not  _ about  _ what.  _ “Lance? What the hell, man?  _ **_Lance!_ ** _ ”  _ Keith screamed at him, finally catching the boy’s attention.  _ “Can you answer me?  _ **_Please?_ ** _ ” _

“Sorry, sorry, I dozed off for a moment,” he gestured heavily into the phone’s direction, even though it was literally impossible for Keith to see it. Lance knew he  _ should  _ pay attention, but it just couldn’t happen when Keith was acting like  _ that,  _ come on, he was the sweetest human being right now and who could Lance be to ignore it?

_ “Yeah, I figured,”  _ Keith laughed, staring directly into some kid’s eyes, as they looked at him when he was passing by them. He hated when someone was looking at him when he talked. Besides, what was so wrong with  _ laughing  _ relatively quietly in the  _ mall,  _ where people were doing some much worse things than that.  _ “So, Lance, tell me. Does picking your skincare shit take much time, or not? It’s really important to know, ‘kay, don’ judge me!” _

“I can’t believe you’re actually asking me this!” Lance couldn’t hold back from laughing, I was just impossible when Keith was… so him today. Well, not really him, but this cute, soft side of him, so actually him. Kind of complicated, but Lance didn’t really think about it. “But… if you really want to know, Keith, if it’s what you really desire, then I’ll tell you. So, it usually doesn’t take me much time to do it, but I’m experienced. You know, shopping can get tiring as hell if you just go there to… go around? I don’t know, it’s stupid. I like shopping, don’t get me wrong, but walking around for  _ hours  _ just makes no sense, you could do so many different, better things then! So, yeah, my shopping usually doesn’t take more than an hour, maybe two, if I’m looking for something slightly less specific, like when I needed a shirt for Marco’s wedding and I had to visit various shops to pick the best one, you know, but I still  _ knew  _ what I had to buy, right?”

Keith was  _ fucking melting. _

This boy was going to be the death of him once again. How the hell did he manage to get excited like this over literally everything? It was something Keith just couldn’t understand, but was willing to take for granted. Jesus Christ, who gave Lance the right to be this adorable, every damn time, even when they weren’t in the same room. His voice was doing  _ things  _ to Keith and he didn’t know how to deal with them.

And the air conditioning was somehow broken also in this place, what the  _ actual hell!? _

_ “It’s nice, finally someone who doesn’t get all excited just… just fuckin’ runnin’! ‘kashi does that all the time, the shoppin’, I mean. Him, Adam and ‘lura could all spend hours in the mall, I can’t understand this shit and I tried to do it! Oh, fuck, they’re coming. Jeez, they always drag me with them, you should come with us sometimes, maybe we could sneak out after a few minutes. I can’t really do that alone, but ‘kashi wouldn’t probably mind if I was with you. ‘Cuz, he’s awful, you know that! Yeah, he’s my brother, I love him, but his shopping is damn ungodly! Imagine him and Adam entering some shitty store with house items, whatever these are called, and going absolutely insane! They’re runnin’ ‘round the shop and pickin’ up random objects, then yellin’ somethin’ like "Oh, come on, Takashi, we gotta buy it! It’ll fit perfectly in my bedroom!” I dunno, it’s actually funny, but annoyin’ when you gotta enter the fifth store of that kind, though. You really should join us next time! We could go to this tattoo things shop ‘kashi’d showed me once and look for some creams for your tattoo, does that sound good for you, Lance?”  _ Keith stopped to breathe, realizing that he was talking all this time with literally no breaks, scaring Shiro, who was slowly approaching his brother, bags in his hands, on his shoulders and in the crooks of his elbows. Adam and Allura must’ve gone crazy today, but Shiro wasn’t a saint either. He bought up almost the entire store, but he’s got some money he didn’t need to save, so why not use it and entertain himself a little bit?

“Yeah, awesome! Also, I haven’t heard you talk that much once in like… forever, Keith! I mean, we don’t know each other for long, but still!” Lance answered, he definitely would be poking Keith’s shoulder if they weren’t like ten miles apart. Now after he answered, Lance was just listening to the conversation forming on the other side of the phone. It was something about Keith not socializing with his friends, running away from them and it all involved swearing in Japanese, coming from Shiro, of course. Keith kept yelling back at him and Lance tried his best not to burst out laughing, because he didn’t feel like revealing that he was still there.

_ “Lance, I gotta go, they got me!”  _ Keith faked the offended, almost scared tone while practically wheezing.  _ “My brother says hey, by the way. Okay, bye, I’ll see you tomorrow at our session! Yes, ‘kashi, we can go now, I finished, yes, Jeez,  _ **_yes!_ ** _ ”  _ He hung up, leaving Lance crying and laughing on his sofa. He almost immediately texted Pidge to get ready for the appointment, because if  _ this  _ happened today, then tomorrow could only be funnier and he could barely hold it together  _ now. _ Keith was making it impossible to ignore this, Lance was afraid he might actually cry and start randomly laughing tomorrow, messing up the work Keith would be doing that day.

───────

Lance stormed into Pidge’s apartment probably way too early, but he didn’t care at all. They had to be in the shop earlier if they didn’t want to mess up Keith’s working schedule. At least Lance didn’t want that, because Pidge, to be honest, didn’t care that much, as she knew literally nothing about tattooing. Lance tried his best to explain everything to her, but his words were far too chaotic for her to understand. He was now standing beside her, telling her to  _ eat fucking quicker, Pidge, because we have to be leaving now!  _ She didn’t know what the whole point of this was, but she couldn’t bother to ask Lance about it. She really wasn’t in the mood for listening to him, it only made things worse.

“Can you drive today?” He said when Pidge was finally done with her breakfast and they both started to get ready to leave. Pidge looked at him like he was going completely insane. Lance was always trying to show off around her and Hunk and they always had to force him  _ not  _ to drive, especially when he was extremely tired or stressed. This time he just  _ asked  _ Pidge and it had  _ never  _ happened before.

“What has gotten into you, huh?” Pidge laughed, tying her trainer and grabbing her keys from the shelf. She couldn’t believe it was actually happening, especially that Lance was so hyped to drive before and he knew that Pidge wasn’t the fastest driver he knew, but somehow he still suggested that she should do it.

“I have to call Keith, well, I don’t necessarily  _ have to,  _ but I want to and you know I can’t do that while driving, yeah?” He waited until Pidge locked the door to run down the stairs to the driveway, where she had her car parked. He didn’t even wait for her to reply, he just slid onto shotgun and watched Pidge sit on the driver’s seat, an impossibly surprised look on her face. “What? You wanna be in the accident or what?”

“No, I don’t, what the hell, Lance! It’s just funny to see you all involved like that, mister  _ I-will-talk-to-Keith-any-time-possible! _ ” She started the car, not bothering to look at Lance, who has already been dialing Keith’s number.

“I’m putting us on a speaker, Pidge!” Lance announced and placed his phone in the handle Pidge usually used whenever she needed to use the navigation. “Hey! Hey, Keith, we’re on our way. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s early, but you’ll be there already, right? Pidge’s with me, as we said earlier, say hey, Pidge!” Lance’s rambling left Keith laughing softly on the other side, and Pidge yelling ‘hi!’ right at the phone. “We’ll be there in ten minutes, fifteen maybe. Pidge will go first, as we discussed, or we didn’t? Nevermind, she will, okay?”

_ “Sure,” _ Lance could have sworn that he heard Keith smile when he said that. It was definitely true, or Lance just wanted to believe it so hard it became the truth. It didn’t matter, as long as he could talk to Keith.  _ “Good to know you’ll be there earlier, I’ll try and make ‘kashi drive me. Shiro, we’re leaving in a minute!”  _ He quickly yelled at his brother, then turned back to the conversation.  _ “‘kay, he’s gettin’ ready, we’ll be there soon. Wanna hear a story? Adam hates me. That’s it, that’s the fuckin’ story! I threw out the candle that was damn burnt out and he kept yellin’ at me for half an hour, because, as he said ‘It smells like vanilla, you can’t just get rid of it, Keith!’ But it was nothing in there, just the glass and this… this thing you light up, fuckin’ stupid shit, I dunno! But Lance, tell me, was I really wrong? It was just stupid and I think Adam was messin’ with me and he’s fakin’ bein’ all angry at me, but I dunno anymore, Lance!” _ Keith whined and from what Lance could hear, him and Shiro were heading to the car. Keith’s brother was laughing at the way he took the whole ‘fight’ with Adam, knowing that his boyfriend definitely  _ didn’t  _ hate Keith.

“Of course he was messing with you, who would  _ seriously _ want to keep the empty candle, silly? Keith, I really can’t with you sometimes!” After that they talked for a little longer, it was mostly Keith whining and Lance laughing at him and they hung up after a few minutes, when Keith told him that they had just parked near the shop and he’s got to prepare everything. Lance was silent during the rest of their drive, smiling fondly at literally nothing. He was most likely daydreaming and Pidge kept looking at him in the mirror, giggling. Most of the time, she would be teasing him about it, but now she was stressed before the tattoo and also happy that her friend had found someone whom he’s comfortable around.

They pulled up at the driveway and Lance jumped out of the car and Pidge had to run after him if she wanted to approach him before the door would shut right in front of her face. She managed, but the scene she saw was weirder than she thought it would be. She read that this studio was one of the most professional ones in the whole city, but it really didn’t look like that. Allura was sitting on the desk and going through a lot of papers while chatting with Shiro, who sat, legs criss-crossed, on the couch, smoking. Adam was in the swivel chair, grinning and looking at his boyfriend. Lance… well, he was trying to find Keith and when he finally did, he ran up to him and completely closed the distance between them by hugging Keith. He gasped, shocked by his friend’s behavior, but hugged him back anyway.

Pidge stood there, slightly awkwardly, whispering a faint ‘good morning’ when Allura finally noticed her. This place was a little chaotic and it made Pidge feel so lost at the beginning, but she quickly adjusted to the new atmosphere. She started chatting with Allura and arguing with Shiro, because Pidge thought that smoking is really bad and as much as she didn’t mind the smell and all that, she still thought that it was going to damage Shiro’s health. Turned out he was a pretty cool dude after all, especially when Pidge realized that he was the guy who tattooed Hunk.

“We should meet up outside our appointments, am I right?” Lance asked Keith while they were still standing in the middle of the lobby, hugging. Neither of them wanted to break the embrace, so they just decided to talk like that. “You seem pretty starved of me, Keith, it’s actually flattering!” Lance said, but it came out a little louder than expected.

“Probably,” Keith didn’t know what had gotten into him, but he buried his face in Lance’s shoulder and smiled. “But don’ flatter yourself too much, Lance! If you keep showing off like that, I’ll never meet up with you again, got it?”

“You know that’s not true,” Lance didn’t know what happened with him either. His confidence boosted so much he felt like a completely different person, being able to fluster Keith so easily, but Lance liked it, undoubtedly. “You would meet up with me even if I was the most annoying person in the whole world, Keith, because you like me  _ so much! _ It’s showing, Kogane, you can’t deny it!” He was aware that every person inside was now paying attention to them, so he decided to pull it a little further.

Keith mumbled something that seemed like “‘course, Lance”, but it was almost intelligible, as his face was still plastered to Lance’s shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Lance finally said, breaking the embrace, his hand still on Keith’s shoulder. They had wasted enough time already, but it was for the better, as Pidge could relax before the whole process. But they couldn’t really wait longer, Keith deserved his free time after their session. Lance quickly glanced down, looking at Keith’s ankle, which was still covered in bandages, but looked far better than two weeks ago. He wasn’t limping at all, but it still must’ve hurt a little bit. “Room Three, here we come!” Lance yelled, laughing, and dragged both Keith and Pidge inside. He got weirdly comfortable in the studio and even Keith was amazed by it. Their relationship had grown much since last appointment. He liked, obviously, but it still wasn’t something he was experiencing every day. 

“‘kay, Pidge, I’mma explain a few things to you,” Keith said, grabbing his gloves and trying his best not to laugh, as Lance was making it almost impossible. “First, you’ll shave the part of your body where you wanna have a tattoo, I assume it’s your arm, right? Cool, then we’ll start, you have your design, I hope. Y’know, it’s sterilized and all that, we talked about it before. Bathroom’s ‘round the corner,” he pointed at the door and handed Pidge the razor in a little package, which she grabbed quickly and after that, she ran to the bathroom.

Keith couldn’t hold it anymore. Lance was so  _ cute,  _ so awesome,  _ so funny, _ so…  _ him  _ that Keith could only smile while looking at him. They started talking about random topics, occasionally touching each other’s hands or shoulders. Lance grew more than comfortable with Keith running his fingers through his skin, as he was constantly doing that, because, after all, Keith was tattooing him and Lance just  _ had to  _ be relatively comfortable with that. Pidge returned after a minute or two, looking at them with eyes wide opened. She saw Lance flirting various times, but this once was more than different from the others. He wasn’t subtle about it, but no pick up lines involved, she realized. Keith looked rather fond of it, at least that was what she thought when she saw them.

“I’m ready,” she decided to interrupt, because they didn’t seem to realize that they were wasting time. “We can start.”

“Yeah, good. Lance, if you’ll excuse me,” Keith laughed again, grabbing Pidge’s project in order to quickly print it on her right shoulder. The design she created was simple yet awesome, it reminded Keith of his own projects he was doing when he was still in high school. Of course, Pidge’s one was way better than his old ones, it was perfectly clean and ready to be printed on her skin. It showed a simple spaceship with a few stars around it, and the following quote:  _ we’re all made up of the same cosmic dust.  _ He didn’t ask about its meaning or who said that to her, it was probably private and his job wasn’t to talk about it with her.

His job went rather fast, maybe an hour and they were done. Pidge didn’t hiss or groan at all, she was a perfect person for tattooing, Keith had to admit it. Lance was making Keith’s job a literal challenge, as he was constantly making him laugh and Keith had to stop tattooing every minute, but it all turned out to be great in the end. Pidge was so hyped she had to hold the chair tightly, so she didn’t move too much.

Also, her sight was focused on Lance all the time. She couldn’t stop thinking about the way he was acting around Keith, only making sure that there was something going on between them. They didn’t act like Hunk and her did, there was definitely something different, she just couldn’t figure out  _ what  _ exactly yet.

“And… done!” Keith gently pressed the paper towel to her arm, then covered the whole tattoo with foil. “Lance can explain to you how you should take care of it, ‘kay?  _ Please,  _ Lance, I dunno what I’m talkin’ ‘bout anymore. Thank you,” he sighed in relief, patting the seat from which Pidge has just stood up. “Your turn, Lance. Pidge, y’can stay ‘n’ watch me work, if you’d like,” when they talked on the phone, she told him she’d  _ love to _ see a real tattoo artist work, but she never had an actual opportunity to do it, but now the time was perfect. “We’re hopefully gonna go through half of the flowers today, maybe a little less, I didn’t have my morning coffee, but I’ll manage. Good, Lance, you know the rules,” Keith pushed him a little, sitting on the stool, his head inches away from Lance’s face.

“Aren’t you guys a little too comfortable?” Pidge joked as soon as Keith started filling in the flowers on Lance’s forearm. “What next, are you gonna sit on each other’s lap? Imagine that, Keith, you would sit in between Lance’s legs in order to tattoo his arm. You know each other for… what, two months?” She was laughing on full volume now, spinning on the swivel chair Keith had in his room. Somehow, her own idea entertained her to an impossible level. She was giggling all the way, especially when Keith spoke up.

“Don’ fuckin’ give him ideas, Pidge! I swear, he’d do it without hesitation, you should know it!” He turned his head to Pidge for a second, then brought it back to Lance, a little closer this time. The amount of confidence he’d gained since he met Lance was truly impressive. “No, Lance, I know what you’re thinkin’ and we’re not doin’ that!” He still couldn’t stop laughing as he was feeling in yet another flower, amazed by his own work. It looked even better on Lance’s body than it did in Keith’s head before. It was undoubtedly one of the best project’s he’d ever done, not to mention how  _ perfect  _ it looked on this ideal, tanned skin of Lance’s.

“Besides, the only one sitting on someone’s lap in this shop is Adam, I can be the second, if you wish,” Lance answered, winking at Keith, but he was too busy to notice.

“The weird one who was spinning in the lobby, glasses and all that?” Pidge asked, slightly confused. She knew Shiro (not quite, but okay) and Allura had a name tag, so the only one remaining person had to be Adam, but it could always be a random guy, even though Pidge highly doubted it.

“That’s him, he’s fuckin’ awful,” the way Keith said that proved that Adam definitely wasn’t nearly as bad as he described him. The tone was not as sweet as when he talked about Shiro, but still pleasing enough to realize that Adam was close to him as well. “Yeah, he’s my brother’s boyfriend and he can cook, I shouldn’t say a bad word about him, but come on, he’s a literal big baby sometimes, am I right, Lance?”

“From what you told me and what I heard on the phone, yes,” Lance chuckled,  _ oh dear God, fuck, he’s so cute,  _ and shifted slightly, so Keith would have better access to the outside part of his forearm. “This one time when he argued with Shi— or, no, that time he was more like a mother, wanna hear it, Pidge? He argued with Shiro and Keith here about food, it seems stupid, right? Kind of was, remember when Hunk yelled at me when I burnt his pasta? It was similar! But, to the point. Adam yelled at them for ‘not wanting to learn’ and he kept saying that he will stop visiting them to make food!”

“But I  _ wanted  _ to learn!” Keith defended himself. No one was going to tell him stuff like that, even if it was the prettiest, cutest boy who could make the best flower crowns ever. “It’s not my fault I can’t do this shit, ‘kay? Adam’s a fuckin’ god when it comes to cookin’, he can just do this shit out of  _ nothin’, _ like Hunk, right? Nevermind, Lance, we’re done, I think you won’t be able to sit still any longer, yeah?” The way Keith touched Lance’s arm left him mesmerized  _ as fuck,  _ and it was none of an understatement. Lance literally lost his breath and confidence when Keith wrapped up his arm again, far more gently than the last time.

Pidge had another idea in mind and she didn’t object of stating it out loud. Her friend’s relationship with this tattoo artist caught her off guard at the beginning, but now it was just purely entertaining to look at them and listen to the way they were talking to each other. They seemed to know each other for  _ years _ , not two months or something.

“Lance can cook as well, think about it, Keith,” Pidge snickered and with that, Lance and her left the room, the latter practically dying from happiness. Nobody knew what it was all about, but he was willing to accept everything. Even if he had absolutely no clue what Pidge actually meant.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaa thanks for reading!!!!
> 
> please leave your thought below I want to know what you think about this story!


	6. session no.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it's not the heating's fault after all?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the chapter 6!!! were officially in the middle of the story, I can't believe it,,, this one took me a little longer than usual and it's also a little shorter but I hope you don't mind!!!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

Keith Kogane wanted to take back every nice word he had ever said about his older brother. He  _ thought _ Shiro was perfect, awesome, cool, the best brother you could ever ask for, but turned out he was  _ fucking far away  _ from that. As much as Keith loved him, right now the only thing he wanted to tell Shiro was to go screw himself, “I hate you!” or something. Maybe Keith was being stupid and ridiculously childish, but who wanted to be treated like that?

It started a few days before (well, more like two, but it felt like eternity to Keith) his fifth appointment with Lance and it really didn’t look like the storm was coming.

“How are things going with your loverboy, huh?” He asked and it was the first match to the fire that was slowly filling Keith’s insides. “A little bird told me that you two decided to hang out outside your appointments, am I right, little brother? It actually wasn’t that hard to guess, Lance isn’t subtle at all, you know that? You were hugging each other in the middle of the lobby!” Shiro kept laughing, sitting on the couch. He  _ fucking loved  _ teasing his brother about a lot of stuff, not knowing how insecure he really was about it. Well, Keith didn’t want to tell Shiro about his worries, yelling at him seemed like a better idea.

“You don’t know anything, old man,” Keith didn’t hesitate to call Shiro like that, he absolutely deserved it after messing with his brother like that. Takashi looked even more than casually offended, but being called an ‘old man’ was their long term joke, they both even heard Adam laughing from the kitchen. “What the fuck’s your problem, ‘kashi?”

“ _ My _ problem? Oh, it’s nothing, it’s good to see you in love like that! Reminds me of me and Adam when we first started dating,” Shiro ignored Keith’s death glare. He was  _ sure  _ that his brother wasn’t as mad as he looked like. They were fighting like that their whole life, it wasn’t anything unusual, not even for Adam. But Keith was slowly losing it, a little faster when Shiro mentioned  _ love  _ around him. Keith didn’t fall in love, especially not after everything that happened with Shiro a few years before. Maybe Keith had this goddamn life line on his stomach, but it still didn’t allow Shiro to be like  _ that _ towards him. It just wasn’t right at all, it hurt Keith like hell, but no, he definitely wasn’t going to tell his brother as everyone should.

“Your fuckin’ problem is— I fuckin’— I don’ love him, Shiro, goddammit! And who I’m meetin’ with is my fuckin’ business, I thought  _ you  _ would know that,” Keith didn’t know why, but he was on the verge of crying. His reason was stupid, but it was here and he could literally do nothing about it. “It’s none of your damn business— you told me you were happy that I have fuckin’ friends, so let me have them and stop actin’ like my father!”

They both knew they had pushed it way too far, but there was no coming back now. They were both too proud to admit that they were wrong, even though they grew unexpectedly closer over these few years. Keith loved Shiro and talked about him in this sickly sweet tone, but during times like this one, when they were alone, he was losing it completely and he didn’t care about being polite at all. Keith was painfully aware of the fact that he was a hothead and it didn’t help him with sorting everything out.

“I can’t believe you said that,” Shiro snorted, covering his mouth with his right hand. “I’d like to remind you that you were the one who got all mad when I was spending some time with Adam!” Shiro yelled back at his brother, deciding to bring his old behavior back, because he didn’t really have anything to defend himself with.

“‘cause— ‘cause you were  _ never _ home, Shiro! Imagine what it would be like for… a teenager still not to have  _ anyone  _ around! You don’ fuckin’ know this and I couldn’ just tell you that! What would it be like, I couldn’ just  _ ban  _ you from meetin’ your goddamn boyfriend!” Keith was really acting like this teenager he mentioned, even though he hasn’t been one for a few years now. His breathing was extremely heavy now, he didn’t even know what he was arguing about, but he couldn’t back down anymore. His life wasn’t perfect and neither was his relationship with Shiro. He  _ had  _ absolutely every right to fight with his brother sometimes and the time like that was  _ now. _

“And yet still you get all mad when I say you’re spending more time with other people! Did I say that it was a bad thing or something? Jesus, Keith, you need to calm down a little bit, nobody wants to hurt you! But you still get all defensive as always!” Shiro’s voice was rising with every word he said, but he refused to let his anger take control. He was the older one here, he was supposed to be wiser as well. His brother didn’t make sense and as much as Shiro wanted to stay calm, it was absolutely impossible with this little ball of anger called Keith.

“I just— I can’t, Shiro! Adam,  _ please,  _ tell him somethin’! I just sometimes—” he tried to sound convincing, but his throat was hurting from both yelling and holding back tears. “Lance and I— this is not—! This is not what you all think, fuckin’ Christ! Can’t you just shut up about him for a second?  _ I  _ don’t even talk about him as much as you do!”

Shiro  _ so  _ wanted this fight to be over, but he knew his brother would need at least a few days to be back to normal, so he decided a little more teasing won’t hurt anyone. Keith was just overreacting, they both knew that, but Keith was also in denial and Shiro was entertained by everything that was happening.

Keith’s expression was getting weirder and weirder each second he looked at Shiro and it made his older brother far more than uncomfortable with that. Keith’s eyes were almost squeezed together, angry tears forming in the corners, but he refused to let them fall down, he wasn’t going to show his brother all his insecurities again. He saw them way too many times already and Keith couldn’t risk it again. His fists were grabbing at the material of his pants tightly, but they loosened their grip when he stood up and slowly walked up to the front door.

“I’m goin’ out, don’ wait for me, I’ll be back later,” he said, voice low, as if he was forcing himself not to completely burst out crying. Shiro and Adam watched him leave, but none of them made any effort to stop him. They both knew him rather well, so they were aware that he just needed time to be alone and think it all through, he didn’t need anyone, but still, Shiro was almost sure that he was going to call Lance as soon as he left the house.

“What was that, huh?” Adam asked, walking up to his boyfriend and sitting besides him on the couch. His eyes didn’t look pleased at all, far more like disappointed. The usual sparks in them were absolutely flat and almost faded away, which caused him to look absolutely  _ terrifying.  _ It wasn’t that Shiro didn’t know this expression – oh he did more than he would like to. Adam always made it whenever Shiro did something bad or stupid, like that one time when he thought that it would be good to bring home a whole box of little kittens. They ended up giving them all to their friends, besides two of them – Black and Red, because Keith insisted that he  _ needed  _ that one perfect red cat in his life.

“What was  _ what?”  _ Shiro replied, having no idea what Adam’s deal was. It wasn’t like he made any kind of mistake, he was just  _ teasing,  _ who thought it would end up in Keith leaving the house. “I didn’t do anything bad, did I, Adam? I wasn’t making fun of him, Jesus Christ, what am I, fifteen again?”

“It’s not about that, Takashi, you know that,” Adam sighed, placing his hand on Shiro’s thigh. He wasn’t even angry anymore. “You  _ know  _ him, he’s your brother! You  _ know  _ what it all did to him, right? I’m not saying it didn’t affect you, because, well, it did, mostly  _ you,”  _ he tapped his fingers on Shiro’s prosthetic arm for emphasis. “But you also  _ know  _ how he was feeling after that, his social life was a fucking  _ mess,  _ Takashi! He deserves having someone besides us and Allura whom he trusts with his problems, right? I don’t say you can’t tease him, because I know you didn’t mean any harm,” he paused, but when he wanted to talk again, Shiro decided to interrupt him. They were having a serious conversation right there and he needed to state all of his points as clear as possible.

“I admit, that was kinda dumb of me, okay? But he’s an adult like us, right, Adam? Look, I know he wasn’t in the best condition before and I’m sorry I said all of that, but Adam! He can’t get angry because of… that!” He finished with an unexpected gesture, a thing he’d developed from Keith, who developed it from Lance, a little wild story.

“I  _ get you,  _ but you can’t just assume he’s in love and  _ point it out  _ like that! I also think that he’s way better now than he was before, but you know that he was never actually in love, right? Well, to be honest, I also think that he’s got something going on with Lance, but we should let them figure it out on their own. Keith is probably scared as hell already, we shouldn’t make him more uncomfortable, okay? He  _ will  _ tell you when he’s ready, he’s your brother after all, remember?” Me moved closer to Shiro and snuggled to his side, his head placed on Shiro’s shoulder. “And don’t worry, he’ll be okay. Well, he may be mad for a little while, but it will pass, as it always does, okay?”

Shiro hummed in response, shifting so Adam would be more comfortable in his embrace. With him in his arms, after this soothing speech Takashi was sure that it was all going to work out rather well. Shiro looked down at his boyfriend who was slowly falling asleep, but he didn’t even try to keep their conversation going. Adam deserved some rest after the whole day of work and caring about the whole house. Shiro had to admit, Adam was the best partner he could ever have and facing every day with him seemed to be a little less scary. It was undoubtedly the best thing about him, the second were his feelings and caring personality, the third was the lifeline on his forearm that Shiro loved to kiss whenever he had an opportunity to.

───────

Keith stormed into the studio, shouting a quick “good morning” to Allura, then went to disappear in Room Three, about which Shiro would also tease him, but he tried his best not to think about it. His appointment was to start in fifteen or so minutes, but he really hoped for Lance to be late, as Keith didn’t want him to see him like this. The last thing he wanted was to show Lance his impulsive side. He always thought that Keith was rather nice, maybe a little weird, but he was definitely  _ impossibly fucking cute  _ when it came to Shiro. Keith couldn’t waste it all on his brother’s stupid teasing.

He wanted to go back to the lobby and maybe chat with Allura a little bit, but he was also damn hesitant about it, because he wasn’t really ready for yelling again and he knew that would most definitely happen. He wasn’t really subtle if it came to his anger, he was sure Allura would ask him about it and he wasn’t ready to tell her about that with no visible emotions. 

But he gave up eventually, after five minutes of intense staring at the wall. He felt a little like Lance at that moment – this boy would be shifting and doing anything that equaled  _ moving  _ all the time and Keith was now feeling the exact same urge. He grabbed the lighter and lit up the cigarette, knowing Shiro would most likely scold him for that, but he really didn’t care. Shiro could as well try to talk to him, but Keith wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction by talking back to him. It would be far better than yelling, plus people around them wouldn’t be annoyed as much.

  
  


“Aye,” he said while entering the lobby, meeting with Allura’s worried eyes. “He’s there, right?”

“Who, Shiro? No, he just came in, put his bag and then left with Adam, so no, he’s not here anymore. Did something happen?” Allura sounded genuinely concerned about the whole situation and, to be honest, she’s definitely got the point. She’d known Keith and Shiro for years now and something like that had never happened before. She also realized how different Keith was now but she couldn’t really picture it properly, she just couldn’t believe that Keith was actually becoming more social and that he was talking to anyone besides her and Shiro.

Well, now he didn’t even  _ want  _ to talk to his brother, the first time in  _ years.  _ They were always impossibly close, but right now things seemed to be completely different. Keith sounded like he really didn’t want to talk about or  _ with  _ his brother, which was extremely unusual to Allura.

“We had an… argument? I’d say that,” he explained, forcing himself to talk relatively quietly and with barely any emotions, because clients could walk in any minute.  _ Lance  _ could walk in any minute, Keith couldn’t just allow it to happen. “Kinda, really not quite, but—” he got cut off by someone entering the place and of course, it had to be Shiro, without Adam this time. Keith was actually glad that Adam wasn’t there, because he wasn’t mad at him and felt bad for dragging him into this whole mess. “Can you  _ for once  _ show up on time?” Keith hissed at his brother, looking at the clock which showed that Shiro should have been there for ten minutes already. “What if, _ what if  _ we had a client and you,  _ the fuckin’ boss,  _ weren’t here?” He kept on blaming his brother, who looked completely lost and just stood there, staring at Keith.

“What?” He managed to ask, realizing that the first client who came in was Lance, but he melted in so well that Keith couldn’t even see him through his blinding anger. “Keith, what the hell are you talking about?” He laughed slightly, walking inside the lobby and trying to process what was actually happening.

“ _ You’re the fuckin’ boss, ‘kashi,  _ you own this damn place! It’s your business to be there on  _ time,  _ I fuckin’ get that you’re datin’ Adam, but it doesn’t mean you can be fuckin’ late all the damn time! Are you even  _ serious!?  _ It stopped bein’ funny a long time ago, and don’ think I forgot about what you said at home!” It was something like three days ago, but Keith could hold a grudge for  _ a long time _ if it really touched him, and Shiro’s words definitely did. “No, don’ give me that look! You know what you did and there’s no fuckin’ denyin’ it anymore!” He just couldn’t stop yelling, slowly walking up to his brother, ready to literally shout it all to his face. He was blinded by his own anger to the point that he didn’t even see Lance coming up to him and placing his hands on Keith’s shoulders.

“Keith, hey,” Lance said, but Keith was far too angry to pay attention to him. Lane literally almost yelled it to his face, but he couldn’t even realize how close they really were and that he was still shouting in the lobby. “Keith, hey! Keith,  _ baby,  _ you need to stop that, do you hear me?  _ Keith,  _ listen, it’s okay, right, baby? You need to calm down first and stop yelling for a second. I’m sure Shiro didn’t mean anything he told you, right, Shiro?” He asked Keith’s brother, who was more than confused and could only nod eagerly with a smile. “See, baby? It’s good now, you’ll tell me about what happened later,” he kept on talking, unaware of the constant usage of pet names, but none of the people present seemed to care. More like, none of them actually realized what was happening.

Lance just dragged Keith to the room, sending a warm smile to Shiro and Allura, trying to tell them that it will all be okay. Shiro couldn’t believe that it all happened. How the hell did Lance manage to calm Keith down in seconds? Especially when both him and Adam were trying to do it  _ for days,  _ while Lance just walked in, said a couple words and Keith was  _ his. _

“Mind telling me what that was?” He asked when they were finally alone and Keith started preparing to tattoo Lance’s arm again. He stayed silent for a while, hesitant to say anything as he was more than scared to burst out again. Lance, on the other hand, was so confused and mad at himself for calling Keith  _ baby  _ way too many times. But he always did that, especially when one of his friends was sad or angry, he knew that pet names made people calmer and he just used them subconsciously.

“I kinda… overreacted when ‘kashi was casually makin’ fun of me. It was no big deal, but I’m kinda sensitive when it comes to that, I think. He just  _ knows  _ how I am but he still decided it’d be cool to tease me like that, but guess I hold a grudge for way too long. I’m— I guess I’m too proud to admit that I was wrong,” Keith tried his best to get to the meritum of the whole argument. He was  _ for sure  _ too proud to admit it all to Lance, he didn’t even say it to his brother – he guessed it was just too much for now. “But thanks for calming me down, I guess. ‘kashi didn’t mean what he was sayin’, definitely… well, he was, but not  _ that _ , um, you know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout, right?” Lance nodded right after he was asked this question and then they both stayed silent, Lance watching Keith fill in more roses on his arm.

His admiration for Keith’s skills was steadily growing as he could see more and more of them during each session. He still got this weird thrill whenever Keith’s fingers touched his skin, but it was even more pleasing than before. Lance realized that Keith  _ naturally  _ smelled like vanilla. It was impossible at first, but it was still somehow  _ true.  _ This, along with his soft, tender touch, made his whole frame and person even better than he was before and Lance could hardly even take it anymore.

“Hey, Lance. I’m really sorry you had to witness… all of that, so maybe you’d like to tell me ‘bout somethin’ that happened in your life?” Keith asked, pulling Lance’s hand slightly closer, but not too hard so it didn’t cause any pain.

“Oh, if you insist!” Lance got really excited, since this week had been impossibly busy for both of them and they barely had time for talking on the phone, so Lance had to update his friend on everything that had happened during that time. “Well, once Pidge took me to her lesson, because I kept saying I was bored, so she thought that she’ll annoy me by making me work with those kids. She  _ really  _ thought I was gonna hate it, that’s kind of funny. We were coming in my car, yeah, and when we were on our way she was telling me about the kids she’s teaching. By her description I thought she was dealing with literal demons, I swear! But when we got there, these were just like ten kids, or something, and they were really nice to me! They were teenagers, ten or so years younger than us, I even felt kind of old around them, but turned out I didn’t have to at all! They were really nice, but our programming lesson turned to us talking about random topics, starting with Pidge’s hair, it was weird. A few girls and I braided her hair actually, I can show you a pic later, would you like that? Yeah, and then we started talking about my tattoo, because one of the boys saw it and started to ask me questions. I told him about you, but also reminded him that he has to be older if he wants a tattoo on his own, to which he responded with a groan, but I think he understood me and isn’t going to beg his parents to get him a tattoo  _ now,  _ because it would be really bad! Highly unprofessional as well, because he went to the programming lesson and would be back with dozens of tattoo plans, Dios Mio, it would be  _ hilarious, _ but I wouldn’t want to have a lecture done by his parents!” Lance stopped for a while to take a breath, but he wasn’t even halfway through all the exciting events that happened to him.

Keith listened quietly, only humming in agreement and to let Lance know that he was still there and he heard everything perfectly fine. He  _ loved  _ listening to Lance talk, it felt extremely good knowing how excited he was over everything, even if these things weren’t anything special. If Lance was happy with it, Keith would listen to it as long as it takes. It was also nice that Lance felt so comfortable around him that he didn’t even ask if he was talking too much, because he already knew Keith’s response to that. Of course, Lance  _ was _ talking a lot, but Keith couldn’t care less. He was by no means a chatty type, so it was nice to have someone fill the usual silence with entertaining stories.

“Okay, listen to this!” Lance spoke up again, holding back an urge to gesture using his arms, but he knew Keith wasn’t done for today and the only thing Lance wanted was to mess up his job. The needle gently filling his skin with perfectly chosen blue pigment kept reminding him that he needed to stay somehow steady, so now instead of moving his arms, Lance’s face was the one that showed all of the emotions. “I was in my house with Hunk and Pidge and it was awesome! We wanted to invite you, but we didn’t, I’m sorry, but I hope you don’t mind. You know, we’ve known each other for years and sometimes we need time only for ourselves, but, to be honest, all of us secretly wanted to have you around, I think. At least I wanted! We were watching horrors, but instead of being actually  _ scared  _ of them, we kept laughing, because they were absolutely awful! We couldn’t stop laughing and we knocked down the popcorn and our drinks by laughing so hard we fell down the couch. But! Before you say anything, we weren’t having alcohol, I know I can’t do that when my tattoo is healing, I take good care of it, promise! And we spent half an hour like that, it felt like the times back then when we were in high school. You know, we used to meet up all the time, mostly at Pidge’s, since me and Hunk have a lot of siblings and she only had a brother, Matt. He’s cool, actually, I would say, but watching him and Pidge bicker is  _ amazing!  _ They seem like they hate each other, but they don’t!” Lance’s voice was filled with joy and his little chuckles were the best sounds Keith had ever heard in his whole life.

Keith actually couldn’t believe he got to meet someone this amazing and cute at work. Most of his customers were nice, he could say, they were really trying their best not to be mean and stuff, but Lance was different. He was  _ sincere,  _ he never seemed like he was faking his happiness and Keith really liked that. Lance was really trying to be his friend, not to be nice, have this tattoo done, pay for everything and then leave, forgetting about Keith and this studio up to the time when they decided to have another tattoo.

“And you know I work at the flower shop, right?” Lance asked, meeting with Keith’s cute little nod, when he lifted up his head for a moment. Lance’s face flushed with a faint blush when he saw small sparkles in Keith’s eyes. He always considered Keith… dashing, he would say, but now Lance was realizing that Keith was absolutely, undoubtedly  _ beautiful. _ He couldn’t let his new discovery affect his voice, so he just exhaled and went on talking. “We have our boss, Coran, who’s actually like this weird uncle to us. I told you about him already, didn’t I? He’s also a worker, because there aren’t many of us. Only him, Romelle and I. Romelle is a cute girl who once or twice had taken my shift when I had some essential things to do, I owe her a lot. She’s impossibly nice to everyone and she’s my yet another friend! My job there is okay, I guess, I enjoy it, but it’s probably mostly because of people. We meet a lot of kind ones while working, I love sitting with them and picking the best flowers of bouquets or flower crowns. Remember that one I brought before? It was very simple, but I loved it! I can take you there and show you around, if you’d like that, of course. I feel you’d be a master in creating bouquets, looking at what you’re doing  _ for a living!  _ It would be cool, we could even come up with some new designs, it would be awesome, oh my God! I  _ have to  _ ask Coran if I can bring you here, would it be okay?” He slowed down, then stopped talking completely to give Keith some time to think about it. Lance had this weird habit of organizing things before people even agreed to them, but with Keith, he tried his best not to be like that.

“I— yeah, Lance,” he smiled fondly, taking the gun away from Lance’s skin to examine his work. He couldn’t really focus on it, it looked good and it was all he knew before his eyes started tracing Lance’s face shape instead. Keith was bad at this,  _ really bad,  _ but he was now seeing everything he couldn’t during past weeks. Lance had a perfect nose bridge, straight with a little button top, it looked cute. His jaw was slightly defined, way less than Shiro’s, but still impossibly pretty. Lance’s face was the best thing Keith had ever seen in his life and he couldn’t take his eyes off him. “It’d be really nice to come with you,” Keith couldn’t stop smiling at Lance and, to be honest, he didn’t want to.

“Okay, we’re all set up! I’ll ask Coran if I can bring you with me, but I’m almost sure he’ll let me! You know, he’s a pretty cool guy when it comes to it, he loves me, I would say. Well, me and Romelle are both like his kids, he does everything for us, besides, having another person to help in the shop would be always nice, so I don’t really see any reason why he wouldn’t want you to come,” Lance began explaining everything, feeling like he was talking too much for the first time when it was with Keith, but he brushed it off, knowing that it was just his brain playing tricks on him. Keith would  _ never  _ be tired of him, Lance knew that. “Actually, I think both Romelle and Coran would be thrilled to meet you! You know, it’s kind of hard to miss the whole  _ sleeve  _ tattoo on my arm when I’m working in the shop, usually in a t-shirt, so, yeah, it shows my arms, mostly. Also, I may or may not have been talking about you for… a lot of time, actually,” he scratched the back of his neck with the arm that wasn't being tattooed. His new confession didn’t stop him, what more, it actually encouraged him to talk even more. Everyone who had known Lance for at least some time, knew that he wasn’t really subtle about his feelings and he was just expressing them whenever he felt like the time was right. “Yeah, because you may or may not know what, but I really admire your work and just… you in general? Because, man, this is amazing! And Romelle listens to me rambling every day while we’re working together, so all the time! Yeah, you may think it’s weird, but I swear it’s not. You already know that I talk about people I like a lot, so it’s not that unusual, is it? Oh God, Keith, this is so  _ perfect!”  _ Lance suddenly cooed, looking at his arm right at the time when Keith was done. About one fourth of the flowers still needed filling in, but it was awesome nonetheless.

Lance was even able to stay still when Keith was doing the caring preparation thing, even more gently than he did before. Lance could risk saying that Keith got a lot softer since they’d met, but maybe he was always soft like that? Maybe it was his inner side that not everyone was able to discover and Lance felt even better knowing that he may be one of these few people who could see Keith how he really was. Lance had actually no idea if it was the true case, but he liked to believe it.

“‘kay, Lance, it’s all for today,” Keith slightly patted Lance’s arm, now covered with foil and smiled at him yet again. “I’ll call you, ‘aight? I should go and apologize to ‘kashi, he deserves that,” they walked to the lobby together and Keith was slowly realizing that maybe Shiro was right about some things. And maybe his teasing wasn’t so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aye I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!  
> if you want, you can leave writing suggestions/prompts below, as well as feedback about this story


	7. session no.6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heating is finally repaired, but the heat is not going anywhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made it!!! yay!
> 
> I wrote solid 2k today and I'm kinda proud of myself
> 
> also, TW:  
> mentions of a car accident + hospital stuff  
> not really descriptive, it's just Shiro and Keith's backstory

Keith was sitting by his desk in the apartment, feeling way better than two weeks ago. He sorted out everything with Shiro, even telling him a bit about this so-called  _ love  _ he was rumored to experience for a certain someone who happened to like flowers and flower crowns. After Keith told Shiro about it all, he couldn’t just take it anymore – it was made completely easy for him to be able to talk about Lance for hours. Shiro wasn’t even mad at him, he knew how much it had to cost him to admit it all, especially out loud. He was extremely reluctant at first, but somehow managed to say it all and was more than proud of himself.

“‘kashi,” he called, exhaling a little bit of smoke from his cigarette. Shiro was about to make a comment about it, but then he realized he was holding his own one between his fingers. “He’s stupid, so, so stupid! He works in the flower shop, what do you think he’d be like? Jesus Christ, I can’t with him!” He was talking total nonsense and Shiro was chuckling under his breath, but he liked this version of his little brother way more than this one from two weeks before. It was a lot better to have him smiling and laughing, talking like he was a teenager again than being silent or yelling at his brother.

“Of course he is, Keith,” Shiro could hardly take it. His brother was a lot like himself when him and Adam started meeting each other frequently. Being overly excited about a crush was definitely running in their family, there was no denying it. “But didn’t he invite you to that shop?” He asked after a few seconds, changing channels with the remote, trying to find the perfect one.

Keith didn’t respond for a while, staring at the piece of paper he placed in front of him. He had to focus at least a little bit in order to design a tattoo for his new client. His first appointment wasn’t even close to how it went with Lance, but was pleasing enough that Keith decided to work at the tattoo as soon as he came back home. Now the design was halfway done, barely shaded yet, but definitely decent. Keith knew he could do better, as always, but it was his first attempt and most of the time he had to do at least three to be fully satisfied with his work. He put his pencil down for a little bit, stretching his arms, which forced him to hold the cigarette between his teeth instead. He smiled to himself, turning the chair for a few inches to the side so now he was facing Shiro. Adam was not here that day, which was surprising, but his office was giving him a shit ton of work recently.

“Yeah, he did,” Keith finally answered, grinning wider than ever before. “But he’s busy now, we can’t even call each other like before, because he’s got fuckin’  _ a lot  _ to do in the shop. Romelle’s sick, so Lance and Coran have to do everythin’ alone. I was actually offerin’ to help, but Lance said he didn’t want that. I think he was just bein’ polite,  _ everyone  _ would want some help with it. Workin’ with flowers is hard as fuck, at least that’s what I know from what Lance’d told me,” he took a breath, realizing he developed Lance’s rambling-until-I-can’t-breathe thing. It wasn’t bad, but Keith wasn’t used to talking as much as now, so it was definitely funny.

“Maybe he’s got something big planned,” Shiro suggested. He had no idea why he actually thought about that, since he still didn’t know everything about his brother’s relationship with Lance. It was all nice, but neither of them confessed, so he shouldn’t really be talking about any sort of  _ something big,  _ because he couldn’t be sure that anything like this could be happening. But from how Keith was acting, Shiro would definitely suppose that it wasn’t going to end on dreaming, unlike his crush on Adam for the first few months. Keith could be awkward as hell and a little hurt, but when he was sure about what he felt (which he most definitely  _ was  _ that time), he wasn’t going to drop  _ hints.  _ He was going to  _ show  _ the person he liked them,  _ tell  _ them directly, like he addressed everything in his life.

“You really think he’s planning somethin’?” Keith’s eyes filled with sparks of genuine joy and his brother could hardly take it anymore. Keith was  _ never  _ like that, he was actually never in love before. Shiro wasn’t worried, he met Lance and he didn’t seem bad, it wouldn’t be – not after everything Keith was saying about him. “God, it’d be  _ so nice  _ if he did! And you know what, ‘kashi, do you know what?”

Shiro didn’t even have time to take a breath, since everything was making him laugh and smile to the point when his cheeks were hurting like crazy. He couldn’t get rid of the thought that Keith was acting like a kid, talking like a kid, but it was definitely a good thing. He was happy again and Shiro was more than glad to be there and watch him fully live his life.

“No, I don’t, Keith, let me know,” Shiro smiled, actually feeling like he was talking to a child, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Keith stared right into his brother’s eyes for a while before speaking, voice surprisingly low, filled with emotions Shiro couldn’t fully picture.

“I will tell him,” he said, but decided to continue after a few seconds, when he realized that what he was talking about definitely wasn’t as clear as it seemed in his mind. “‘bout what happened to us, your scar, my scar, your arm, everythin’. He was curious ‘bout it and now as I grew closer, I think I’m ready to talk to him,” his tone for slightly more serious, as the topic he stepped in was still a little hard to mention, but bearable.

“That’s good, Keith. I’m not gonna ask if you’re ready, because we’ve been through this before. If you want to tell him, it will be nice, since he wanted to know about it for a long time. I think he’ll really appreciate it,” Shiro answered, changing his position on the couch. A smile was constantly plastered to his face and he stopped even minding the mild ache in his cheeks.

“M’sorry,” Keith bursted out suddenly, changing his voice completely. “For yelling at you, it was stupid, I know that now.”

“Don’t mention it,” Shiro shrugged. They’ve been through it already, a few times, to be precise. “I wasn’t the best either, so let’s just not talk about it anymore, Keith. It’s okay, right? Now focus on yourself and on this design, because it seems you dozed off for a moment,” Shiro’s teasing got a little subtler and Keith grew to accept it. He knew he had to focus on drawing if he wanted to have it done by the next day. But he also couldn’t escape that his mind could only think about Lance and that he would probably end up on the phone with him.

“Haha, very funny, ‘kashi,” Keith answered, finishing his cigarette and then went back to drawing. He was kind of a multitasking person, he could draw and talk to his brother at the same time with literally no struggles. “I’ll tell you the same when you’ll be daydreaming about Adam!” It sounded a bit funny, exactly like their relationship should look. They went back to teasing each other about simple stuff and laughing all day long, it was good, just like before their argument happened. “Why did this guy request a fuckin’ complicated piece like that? I mean,  _ whoever  _ who’s even a little sane wouldn’t do that!” Keith whined a bit, struggling to get a few insanely small pieces done. He enjoyed designing this, but his client was wildly specific in what he wanted to have tattooed on his back. Keith had an endless amount of notes he made during the appointment sprawled across the desk. He had to constantly look at them in order to make everything exactly how his client desired. “‘kashi, I’ll never have it done!”

“And you’re the one who spent almost the whole night designing a tattoo for Lance,” Shiro laughed, but switched his voice a little beat before speaking up again. “But seriously, you’re one of the best tattoo artists, Keith. He knew what he was doing when he came to you and it’s not really surprising that he had some specific ideas to share with you. Keith, not many artists in the city could do it and I’m pretty sure he had seen most of – if not every – art you have on our website. He  _ saw  _ what you’re capable of, it’s not like he chose this design to  _ annoy  _ you, it would literally make no sense. He probably had it planned for a while now and was searching for the right person to do it, and this person happened to be you. It could actually flatter you that he decided to choose  _ you,”  _ Shiro would definitely be flattered, but he already had plenty of clients like that and Keith had less experience with these sort of things.

“Seems fair,” Keith spoke up, only to be interrupted by his phone calling. He could actually think that it would happen and he couldn’t just simply decline. “Yeah, Lance?” He answered the phone, putting it on the speaker and then placing it back on the desk. 

_ “Hey, Shiro!”  _ Lance greeted Keith’s brother first, leaving Keith offended as hell, but still smiling and chuckling a little bit. He really couldn’t believe this boy, but he also didn’t want to change anything, maybe besides their relationship status, but he guessed he had to wait a little more for this particular thing.  _ “And hey, Keith, as well, don’t think I forgot about you!” _

“How the fuck did you know I had you on a speaker and that ‘kashi was there?” Keith asked, faking an impossibly annoyed tone, but Lance heard this playful bit and  _ smiled  _ almost  _ audibly.  _ Keith didn’t even think it was possible before, but since he met Lance everything started to be a little easier to handle, even though it was slowly starting to get weird sometimes. Especially from Keith, who had no idea what was going on but was willing to take it anyways. “Am I that predictable or what?”

_ “Of course you are, Keithy boy! But seriously, you’re always with Shiro at that time and you’re working, so you talk to me on the speaker, don’t you think I should know your schedule after knowing you for a few months now? I actually can’t believe that we grew so close in that short amount of time, it’s impossible! Also, Dios Mio, only two weeks left and I will have my tattoo done, I thought it would feel like years, but it happened so fast, I don’t believe it, actually,” _ Lance started talking like crazy and Keith was here to tease him for that almost immediately. He wasn’t even bothered by the fact that Shiro was there, listening to everything. Keith had no secrets if it came to Lance, especially after he’d told his brother everything about his feelings.

“And you phoned me only to tell me that? Lance, I have a calendar, I can easily tell how long it’s been,” he laughed, looking at the drawing he’d been creating, humming quietly. It didn’t look as bad as he thought it would. “Not that I’m not glad, but you could’ve as well texted me or… I don’ know,  _ waited  _ until we have our appointment?”

_ “It’s not that!”  _ Lance yelled, a little too close to the microphone.  _ “I just wanted to talk, this information just slipped, okay? Nevermind, but, by the way, aren’t you also excited because of that? Man, this is sick! People are admiring your work as hell, I had to tell a few people about you and the studio, because they were so interested in it. Literally every person coming inside our shop is looking at my tattoo and complimenting it, even though it’s not finished! Dios Mio, Keith, they all love it so much! Even Romelle, and she was always highly against tattoos, your work is making people change their mind, it’s incredible!” _

“I’m glad,” Keith glanced at Shiro, who was laughing under his breath. He couldn’t believe the way his brother acted. It wasn’t like the situation was by any means unusual, just a regular phone call, but Keith looked like Lance was literally about to propose to him. His expression was soft, extremely lovestruck, his eyes staring at something impossible to be spotted, space between Shiro and the coffee table, as if Lance was standing there. It was a lot more intense than how Shiro remembered himself acting around Adam a few years earlier.

_ “Anyway, I wanted to— um, tell you? Yeah I guess so— tell you about what I did with Romelle the other day! Listen, you remember – no, fuck, Lance, of course you remember, it’s your own tattoo, shit! Nevermind, you have this one tattoo, the roses on your shoulder and the side of your neck, right?”  _ Lance started to completely lose the point, so he had to quickly get it all together again and start talking like he wanted to from the very beginning. He realized what Keith was doing with him and he didn’t like that he was losing practically everything because of his  _ feelings. “We asked Coran if we could do a… tattoo day, or something similar. He said yes, of course, I told you he loves us! So, we were making bouquets based on various people’s tattoos and then we were selling them, not only to these people, but to everyone who wanted them, yeah, because— that’s basically our job, right? And we still have a few the best ones shown behind the window, as well as pictures of the tattoos near them. Yeah, I think this is one of the very best ideas we had! It took us  _ **_hours_ ** _ to manage and make all of the bouquets, but it was definitely worth it,”  _ Lance laughed, even though his voice cracked a little bit a few times. He couldn’t care about that, he had other things to think about at that exact time.

“Send me pictures,” Keith said, rubbing the sides of his head as he looked at the almost finished design. He  _ was  _ proud of it, but at the same time he thought that making it was tiring as hell and he could probably finish working for today. He had more than a week to have it fully done, so he didn’t really have to push himself more than he usually did. “If you want,” he added after a while when Lance still didn’t respond. Turned out he was already sending the pictures, but what Keith realized was that he didn’t give him a photo of the bouquets based on his own tattoo. Keith guessed that it was already sold and Lance forgot to take a picture, but he couldn’t lie, he really wanted to see it.

_ “Just finished!”  _ Lance announced, not commenting on the missing photo, so Keith decided not to mention it as well. They were about to have an appointment the next day, they could talk about it then with no problems.  _ “They’re pretty, right? Romelle turned out to be a master at design, Dios Mio, I think we really changed her attitude about tattoos! Actually, I didn’t plan that at all, but it’s really nice. I don’t think she could ever get her own tattoo, but she definitely started to admire them  _ **_and_ ** _ the people who create them! Especially you, I would say. We actually met a few people who also had your or Shiro’s work on their bodies and  _ **_every_ ** _ single one of them was perfect! I have no idea how you both do it, but you’re literal gods of tattooing, even Hunk said that and he’s the wisest – along with Pidge – person I know,”  _ Lance kept talking all the time, but Keith couldn’t be mad at him. He loved listening to Lance, especially when he was talking about things he liked to do. He was so passionate about it that it was sometimes impossible, but undoubtedly adorable. The whole Lance’s person was cute as hell, Keith was realizing it more and more every day.  _ “I think out tattoo day will turn out into a tattoo week, because people are still coming and— yes, Romelle? Yeah, it’s Keith. Romelle says hi to you both! Oh, shit! Yeah, we have another wave of people coming and we should go discuss their bouquets so… talk to you later, okay?”  _ Lance didn’t have to wait for an answer since he already knew what it was. He hung up, leaving Keith completely lovestruck and Shiro smiling. Keith didn’t know what caused him to behave like that, since nothing unusual happened during that talk, but he was willing to take it all, if it equalled feeling like that because of Lance. Keith actually loved it as much as he loved Lance, so there were literally no disadvantages.

“He made a bouquet based on my tattoo, ‘kashi! He made a fuckin’  _ bouquet,” _ Keith said, daydreaming. He thought that it must have been the cutest thing someone had ever done for him and he was probably right. Shiro laughed softly, smiling widely at his brother who now stood up and spun around before plopping down on the couch. If they were in some stupid kids’ cartoon Keith’s pupils would most likely be shaped like little hearts and the usual steel color would be replaced by vibrating pink. “He did it, fuck, ‘kashi, is this what you’re feelin’ with Adam? Fuck, I’m sorry for any time I said you two were bein’ stupid or that you should focus on somethin’ else,” Keith really meant it. Now, as he started to experience the exact same things, he couldn’t believe how rude he was to his brother and his boyfriend.

“Yeah, that’s similar to what we feel, but after some time it just fades a little. You just enjoy the other person’s company, however sometimes you still get struck with random episodes of love like that, it’s funny. And, you don’t have to apologize, Keith, I get you could be annoyed by this, but I’m also glad that you understand it now,” he smiled, placing his right hand on Keith’s shoulder.

───────

“Hunk, what if it’s bad? What if he doesn’t like it? What if I’m going too fast, Hunk, I can’t!” Lance was sitting in the shotgun seat of Hunk’s car, torturing his friend with  _ way too many  _ thoughts. He could as well fight with them inside, but Lance was not this kind of person. He had this weird desire to articulate his thoughts and needs out loud, a little  _ too  _ loud even, probably. “Hunk, we were so hyped with Romelle back in the shop, but I don’t know anymore. Have you  _ seen him,  _ Hunk? I’ll never forgive myself if he doesn’t like it. It’s okay, isn’t it, Hunk? I think it is, but… but maybe not? How shitty it is, Hunk, tell me, but be honest!” He yelled, causing Hunk to sigh. He would probably just lay his head down on the steering wheel if he didn’t have to  _ drive. _

“Lance,” he started, forcing back a smile. The way his friend acted was purely ridiculous, he was making up problems that didn’t even exist which sounded really hilarious. His eyes showed pure fear even though there was nothing to be scared of, so Hunk knew he had to do something about it  _ before  _ they got to the studio. “It’s really fine, you don’t have to worry about it. You and Romelle did a really good job out there, I  _ mean _ it. And it’s not like you’re gonna propose to him or anything, so chill out. It’s definitely not bad and I’m sure he’ll love it. Didn’t you see how he looks at you when you FaceTime? If  _ this  _ is not the stare of a  _ damn lovestruck person,  _ Lance, then I have no idea what might be,” he finished, hoping that he could help even a little bit.

“You think?” Lance’s eyes lit up like crazy and he almost jumped in his seat, causing the flowers to bounce a little bit. A few petals landed on Lance’s pants and under the seat, but he hoped Hunk wouldn’t mind them. He was a walking angel, so he was probably all fine with that. “Hunk, I didn’t plan it out at all! It wasn’t supposed to be like that, maybe we can reschedule?”

Hunk snorted, weirdly amused by his friend’s behavior. He  _ couldn’t  _ be serious right now. As much as he loved Lance, he couldn’t take it anymore. It was far too weird for his liking, but he didn’t lie – it was definitely entertaining. Lance was a panicking mess and he really looked like he was about to propose or ask any other kind of serious question. All of his worries started to expand by the time they parked by the shop and Lance shook the bouquet like crazy.

“You’re  _ not  _ gonna reschedule! See, we’re already there. Just go there and give him these damn flowers, it will be okay,” Hunk patted Lance’s shoulder and nearly shoved him away from the car. He shakily made his way to the entrance, standing there and having a hard time  _ breathing,  _ not to mention thinking straight. It took him a few solid minutes to get himself together in order to actually enter the shop. He  _ wasn’t  _ ready, as much as he tried to tell himself that he was, he knew he was only lying to himself. He exhaled, looking out of the window to see the lobby. Allura was sitting by her desk, as usual, Shiro probably hadn’t started his shift yet and Keith was sitting on the table. Lance couldn’t help but think that he was absolutely beautiful and he knew he couldn’t wait any longer.

He entered the place as casually as possible, hiding the flowers behind his back. He knew that Keith wasn’t the best at reading people, so he probably wouldn’t realize it, but Allura definitely did. As soon as Lance had entered, she said something about ‘checking the supplies in the side room’ and then disappeared immediately. Lance stood there like a complete idiot for a minute or so, before actually walking closer to Keith and handing him the flowers.

“It’s the bouquet I told you about yesterday,” Lance said, waiting for Keith to finally grab it. He took it hesitantly, looking at it from every angle possible. It was truly beautiful, but he couldn’t expect it to happen. He had  _ never  _ received flowers before and, to be honest, he had no idea how to act right now. “I hope you like it. It’s cool if you don’t, but I really spent much time on it and it would be nice if you liked it. Yeah, I didn’t send you a pic of it, ‘cause I wanted to give it to you and—”

_ “Like it?  _ Lance, I love it!” He tightened his grip on the stems, debating with himself whether he should hug Lance or not. He turned out doing so, but he had to weirdly maneuver the bouquet so it wouldn’t get smashed when he embraced Lance. “It’s so good, the colors are  _ perfect,  _ I’m not even kiddin’, Lance! This— Oh my God, it’s  _ awesome!”  _ Keith was almost tearing up and to mask it, he guided Lance to the tattooing room to start the appointment. He hoped his reaction wasn’t too much, but, to be honest, he couldn’t care less. He knew Lance for a while now and he could easily tell that  _ nothing  _ was really bothering this boy. You could even burst into his apartment in the middle of the night and he would probably greet you with his arms open for a hug. “C’mon, let’s just get ready. Also, you stopped bein’ late, that’s a good thing. What a shame we’re almost done with your tattoo,” Keith commented, sitting Lance on the chair and starting to prepare everything. Mostly, he was preparing himself for telling Lance everything he wanted to know for past weeks. They hadn’t even touched this topic after that one phone call, during which Keith told Lance that they will eventually talk about it later. And he genuinely started feeling that yes, right now they were in the perfect state of their relationship to have Keith release his secrets.

“This appointment is supposed to be a little shorter than the previous ones, right?” Lance asked, stretching his arm into Keith’s direction and letting the other boy start coloring. The pain got bearable, more like tickling and Lance could actually consider getting more tattoos than just this particular one. “Not that I know much about it, I just can see that we’re almost done and still have one appointment scheduled.”

“Actually, yes. We’re gonna shorten this one a bit, ‘cause the last one will be mostly healin’ ‘n’ stuff like that, y’know, you’ve gotta learn everythin’ properly. But, it doesn’t have to be the last one, if you want,” Keith added playfully, grinning widely. He couldn’t  _ not  _ realize how much he started to smile around Lance, but he liked it, so there was no need to be actually concerned about it. “Y’know, you can always hit me up if you wanna have another tattoo, I think I’d be able to fit you in,” he was forcing his hands not to shake, because the last thing he wanted was to mess up Lance’s almost done tattoo. Keith was constantly looking at his arms, trying to measure his level of stress and it seemed to be a little less intense than what he felt inside. He was definitely doing a great job.

“What’s wrong?” Apparently, he wasn’t. Or Lance was being insanely good at reading people, probably both options. Keith’s plan  _ was  _ to tell him, but he soon realized he had  _ no  _ idea how to do it. If Lance asked, it would be easier, but he probably wasn’t going to do it, so Keith knew he had to start himself. Even if it was hard, he  _ wanted  _ Lance to know. Lance had told him so many things about his family and friends that Keith started seriously doubting. He hid the most important part of his life and it wasn’t fair anymore. Not when Lance brought him  _ literal flowers  _ and was acting all sweet.

“You wanted to know, so I’ll tell you,” Keith said hesitantly, as if he was still fighting with himself over that. Lance’s eyes widened, but Keith couldn’t see that, too focused on having his work done the way it should be. Lance didn’t know what to think about it, his heartbeat increased and as much as he tried to steady it, he couldn’t. He felt these weird vibrations in the air, but he couldn’t picture what was happening.

“Wanted to know what? Keith, I’m afraid I don’t understand you,” Lance managed to ask, plenty of worries appearing in his brain. Whatever Keith wanted to tell him wasn’t as casual as their usual talks, Lance was painfully sure about this. Still, he wanted to know what was going on more than anything.

“You wanted to know what happened, why I have a lifeline tattooed, you were also probably wonderin’ what’s the deal with Shiro’s arm and scar, I’m sure,” Keith said, trying to sound as chill as possible. He barely managed, but one soothing, soft look from Lance was enough to calm him down. “So I’m gonna tell you. Before you ask, yeah,  _ we’re  _ in this state of relationship when we talk ‘bout stuff like that, ‘kay? It happened a few years ago, I was barely eighteen. Stupid age, but it’s not about that,” Keith stopped one more time before getting to his story. “Me and ‘kashi were on our way to Adam’s house and this— this fuckin’ stupid bastard— ‘kay, sorry. There was this guy who was, I dunno, weird and literally drove  _ into  _ our car. I was lucky to only have a few scratches, a broken wrist and— this wound on my cheek, you see, there’s a scar now,” he stopped tattooing only to pat his face, then move on with the story. “It hit us and ‘kashi— well, I called an ambulance and we were driven to the hospital and he— fuck, I phoned Adam and told him and he was there in… five minutes at best. They told us ‘kashi’s arm was fractured and he was barely conscious when they finally prepared him for a surgery, so— his arm was amputated, but you’d probably figured it out. Adam and I were waiting in the corridor for  _ hours,  _ before the doctor came and told us he— ‘kashi had—” he was forced to stop because of the tears slowly appearing in his eyes. He put the tattoo gun back, not wanting to damage Lance’s arm. Soft, quiet sniffles could be heard in the room, but Keith really didn’t want to cry in front of Lance. He thought he wouldn’t, but  _ oh boy how wrong he was. _

“Hey, Keith,” Lance sat up, wrapping his non-tattooed arm around the shorter boy, pulling him close and letting his head rest on Lance’s chest. He started rubbing soothing circles on Keith’s forearm, comforting him. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too hard for you.”

“But— I wanna,” Keith sniffled, forcing himself to give Lance at least one, warming smile. “We learnt that ‘kashi— he fell into a— into a fuckin’ coma. We were visitin’ him every— every  _ damn day, Lance, but nothin’ happened!  _ He woke up after a month or so and we were so fuckin’— so relieved,” now Keith’s little sobs and sniffles turned into full-blown, ugly crying, but he couldn’t care less. He was with a person he trusted, even though he was still unsure about revealing his weaker side. “When— as soon as he did, I had an— an idea. I ran up to the doctor and asked him— asked him if I could have an— a copy of his first _ real  _ heartbeat. He gave it and now— I have it tattooed and Adam also, on the inside of his forearm. Funny— funny thing, he proposed to ‘kashi as soon as he woke up. We were— fuck, we were so scared to lose him, I— I couldn’t— couldn’t—” he wasn’t capable of finishing his sentence, as he completely broke down in Lance’s arms.

“Keith, baby, I’m— I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Lance whispered, feeling like talking louder could ruin everything. “I can’t imagine being this close to losing someone I love. Hey, no, it’s okay, I’m here. Think that Shiro is here, because he is, everything is okay with him now. You wanna know something? I can’t imagine losing someone I love like you love Shiro, I can’t even fucking think about losing you, for example, I lo—” Lance stopped, suddenly aware of the fact that he broke the news to Keith in a definitely surprising way. Keith looked up at him, eyes wide open, still watering, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as a few minutes ago.

“You love me, huh? I’m an idiot,” Keith laughed, but it came out weird due to his recent outburst of crying. “Don’ look at me like that! It was what these flowers were for? Cliché, but cute, though. I should’ve figured it out earlier. Also, sorry you had to see me like this,” his head visibly dropped when he heard the last sentence, but Lance immediately put his fingers under Keith’s chin and lifted it up. Keith’s eyes were still glassy, but pretty nonetheless.

“I’m glad you told me, okay?” Lance locked his eyes with Keith’s ones, using his kind of famous, comforting stare. “I’m never gonna judge you for that, it’s what happened in your life and I’m  _ really  _ glad that you trust me enough to talk to me about it, it’s an honor to me, if you want me to be honest,” Lance smiled, ruffling Keith’s hair and at the same time messing up his little bun, but he didn’t seem to care about it. They both agreed on that they were done for today, as Keith was far too tired to tattoo Lance again. Besides, it only needed a bit of polishing and filling two flowers with blue ink, so it could easily be done during the last appointment.

They spent the rest of this one talking about random stuff, Lance’s mission was to cheer Keith up and prove to him that Shiro was really there, feeling better than anytime before. They even invited him and Adam to the room to have a stupid, funny talk. It lasted for about an hour or so, but it was one of the best hours in Keith’s whole life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOPE YOU LIKED THE CHAPTER!!!!  
> thank you all for reading!!!
> 
> also, I have a question:  
> y'all can tell me if you would like to read a story which will be mainly focusing on secret agents au and friends with benefits au
> 
> if would be nice to receive feedback on that!!


	8. session no.7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s all solved pretty well right now, finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was supposed to be the ending,,,,, but my plans changed haha
> 
> I dunno if it's a real TW, but making out is here!!
> 
> well, enjoy the chapter!!

The last appointment hit them painfully before they even realized it. They  _ knew  _ they were going to be meeting outside it, especially since they confessed, but they didn’t think it would come so fast. Before they could even  _ blink  _ the last two weeks passed and Lance was here entering the parlor for finishing his tattoo. He wasn’t sure whether him confessing was a good idea or not, since neither of them had done anything to change anything about their relationship. They were still talking and calling each other as usual, so Lance started doubting everything he’d said the other day. But Keith had  _ opened up _ to him, so it just had to mean something. Lance was sure about this one thing, even though it could be made up by his brain, but he refused to believe it.

Lance didn’t want the tattooing to be over. If he was being honest, he would miss Keith like that, so he already starts thinking about getting another tattoo. He was willing to fill his whole body with drawings only to have Keith do it for him. Lance couldn’t be sure whether he would meet up with Keith when they’d be done with this design. He  _ wanted to,  _ but also knew that he couldn’t put any kind of pressure on his friend. Or  _ boyfriend?  _ Maybe, Lance didn’t know what to call it. They weren’t officially dating yet, but they weren’t also exactly  _ friends,  _ since Lance had literally told Keith he  _ loved him.  _ There was no ‘I like you’, no ‘I think you’re kinda hot’, no ‘I have feelings for you’, just a full-blown  _ love.  _ Neither of them was probably ready to move their relationship as forward as it was going. Despite the fact that they were trying their best, it was weird and unexpected, especially for Keith, even though he  _ wanted, no, expected  _ it to happen, actually.

Lance entered the place, hanging up from the call he’d been having with Hunk. Lance needed some advice and his friend was the best person to give it to him. He was in a relationship with Shay, a cute girl he met back in college and Lance had to say it – they were undoubtedly the cutest couple he had ever seen. They were also happy together, even though their confession was far away from being  _ perfect.  _ Lance’s as well, so he phoned Hunk almost as soon as he left the shop after his latest appointment. It was a rollercoaster all the way and Lance  _ had to  _ tell someone. Pidge was the second option, because she wasn’t dating anyone, but still  _ somehow  _ knew something about this kind of stuff. Hunk once again told him a story about his confession.

It went more or less like that: Hunk realized he had feelings for Shay during their senior year, and they met at the beginning of sophomore, when Shay got transferred to the university Hunk was attending. He tried to tell her on one of their periods, but freaked out and said something like “Me— no, you, coffee, I love,” and Lance was laughing whenever Hunk was telling him about it again. They actually  _ went  _ to the café and then Hunk managed to tell her properly. They also didn’t kiss or do anything right after, so it was soothing for Lance. But – in his case it’s been two weeks, not four days or something (that’s how much it took Hunk and Shay). Lance was a little less scared and also less reluctant about the whole situation, but he couldn’t predict Keith’s reaction for anything and it was making him go crazy. He  _ knew  _ deep in his mind that Keith would never reject him, but it didn’t stop all the worrying.

Lance stood there, surprised by the fact that nobody was there. Literally, the place was opened, but Lance couldn’t see anyone around. Usually, Allura was the one who you could see here  _ all the time,  _ but now, her place by the desk was empty. Lance wasn’t actually worried about it, but it was definitely weird. They never left the lobby like that, however soon enough he realized that they were just searching for something in the other room. He must have been looking like an idiot, standing by the door and staring at them as if it was his first time seeing an actual human being. It could be similar, since Keith looked  _ so fucking good  _ that day, Lance could barely focus on anything else.

He was wearing the same tank top as during their first appointment ever, but this time he also had regular jeans pants, similar to Lance’s – but his ones were light blue, while Keith’s were typical black. Keith was out of almost all his piercings, he only left a few in his ears, as well as the septum one. Lance couldn’t help but think that he was the most beautiful being he had ever seen. Lance adored the way Keith’s hair started to slightly rest on his shoulders. It got visibly longer during their three months long appointments, but Lance’s wasn’t complaining about it. He could never be, especially when it helped him realize that Keith, somehow, could look even better. If he was like a god before, Lance had no idea what he was like  _ right now.  _ The best thing Lance saw was that Keith had adapted a few things from him. He was gesturing while talking and he never did it before. Well, Lance couldn’t be sure about whether Keith was doing it or not back then, but he definitely didn’t look like a person who was doing these sort of things.

“Hey,” Keith’s voice was a little raspy, Lance assumed he must’ve been smoking not so long ago. Lance took it as some sort of his personal challenge to make Keith stop. Lance, personally, didn’t have a problem with that, the smoke wasn’t bothering him much, but one thing was – Keith’s health. This boy was too precious to be wasting his life like that, even if now Lance knew that it was all because of the accident. “You’re surprisingly early today, I haven’t even prepared everythin’,” Keith laughed softly, passing by Lance with a big box in his hands. It was filled with inks, creams and everything Keith could possibly need in his room. Before Lance could even think about a proper reply, Keith disappeared behind the door.

“He’s weird today, isn’t he?” Allura asked, sitting back by the desk and turning her computer on. She was smiling as usual, but at the same time her face had a hint of concern Lance didn’t like to see. “I can tell you, but you  _ cannot  _ tell Keith you know it from me, okay?” As soon as Lance nodded vigorously, she continued to speak. “He’s been weirdly  _ energetic  _ the whole morning, he’d actually been like that since you two met, but that’s a different story. He’s been  _ jumping around,  _ talking complete nonsense, I could only get your name from it. He never did stuff like that, and now, did you see his  _ smile?  _ I had no idea he could do things like that with his face!” She was whisper-yelling, even though she knew Keith couldn’t hear her from the room. “It’s weird, isn’t it?” She finished, looking Lance in the eyes almost as if she was starting the spiciest rumor  _ ever.  _ Actually, she kind of was.

“Yeah, I guess,” Lance really thought like that, but, to be honest, his thoughts were constantly occupied by the image of Keith. He couldn’t get him off his mind, so he just stared at the doors waiting for Keith to come out of the room. It took him a few minutes, Lance knew he came too early, but he couldn’t help it. It was already too much for him to wait  _ two whole weeks  _ to come here, he wasn’t able to wait any more time. Hunk was actually amazed by the fact that Lance had been up since six and constantly calling him to ask if “they can go already, Hunk, please, we have to!” even if he still had something like for hours to wait. Lance didn’t  _ want  _ to do it, but Hunk somehow persuaded him to sit still until eleven, so he was only half an hour early. Still a lot, but definitely better than three or four (or five?) hours. Also, the parlor wasn’t even opened at seven, so what would Lance do? Sit here until Keith would find him by the door? Probably, and Hunk couldn’t let it happen.

“Hi,” Shiro entered the lobby, being surprisingly early as well. He didn’t have Adam with him this time, he probably got called to the office he was working in, but Lance didn’t think about it for long. “Hey, Lance, seems we’re all being early,” Shiro was talking in a weird, dad voice, but it only made Lance feel this weird sympathy towards him. He was like an older brother… Lance would like to say “like an older brother he never had” but in fact, he had two. Still, Shiro was definitely different, but in a good way. Lance liked him, even if they weren’t talking a lot.

“Yeah, I guess. By the way, who kidnapped Keith and replaced him with this… weirdly energetic clone?” Lance laughed, really wanting to know that one. Shiro was Keith’s brother after all, so he had to know stuff Lance and Allura didn’t. Even if it wasn’t everything, it was for sure  _ something  _ that could help Lance understand what was really happening here. Two weeks before, Keith literally  _ cried  _ in front of him and now he was like a completely different person. Lance didn’t see everything Allura was talking about, but the aura Keith had was enough for him to realize something was not like it should be. Lance thought he could accept and  _ like  _ this new Keith, even though he still wanted to know what caused it.

“You,” Shiro smiled, sitting by the table and pulling out his sketchbook. He knew he had a lot of work to do and it was impossible for him to focus in his apartment, especially when he was alone. He  _ definitely  _ preferred being here with everyone, as he could get easily inspired by everything, most of the time these inspiring things were just people coming inside. Shiro had his appointments mostly in the afternoon, so before that time he could focus on finishing his projects, looking at Keith’s clients passing by.

“What do you mean ‘me’? I didn’t  _ kidnap  _ him!” Lance started to think that the whole situation was getting more and more hilarious, but he was also confused as hell. “What the hell is he doing there? We should be starting!” Lance whined, leaning on the counter and tapping his fingers on top of it.

“You’re scheduled for twelve, so you still have twenty minutes left. Also, you’ll see that I’m right in a moment. You may have not kidnapped him, but it’s definitely because of  _ you,”  _ Shiro smirked, leaving Lance flustered and more confused than ever. He looked around, only to meet with Allura’s fond, yet somehow playful gaze and he knew one thing – he had  _ no  _ idea what was happening anymore. Keith was still absent, even though he could come out any minute and Lance was starting to feel really weird.

He stared at everyone, trying to understand the way their faces looked. They certainly knew something he didn’t and as much as it should be stressing him out, it didn’t. He was just getting confused with each glance everyone was giving him. Especially Allura, who told him everything about Keith’s behavior. When Keith finally decided to show up again, Lance literally froze in place. It seemed like Keith had this insanely impossible ability to look better and better each second, because it’s been ten minutes at best and now he looked like a literal god. He seemed like a completely different person every time Lance had seen him, but he could undoubtedly say that it was a good thing. Lance felt like he was meeting Keith over and over again, being able to experience these weird shivers on a whole new level. Lance clearly saw how Keith was changing over past weeks and he was glad that he was one of a few people who were there with him, especially two weeks ago when he learnt basically  _ everything  _ about Keith’s past.

“Are you gonna stand here or what? We have work to do,” Keith said, grabbing Lance by the collar and dragging him to the room. They didn’t actually waste any time since Lance had come earlier, but it was better to start now than wait with no real reason. “You could stop starin’ at me sometimes, it’s weird,” Keith sounded like he really didn’t mean it. It wasn’t  _ weird,  _ exactly, but something was odd. He guessed it was because he never got this amount of attention from  _ anyone,  _ even from his brother and he had no idea how to react to that. “God, nevermind! Just sit so we can finish this,” he slightly pushed Lance to the chair, taking out the ink. Lance noticed that Keith had a whole box of supplies labeled “Lance”. Not even his last name, also it was written with a pretty blue marker, unlike any other kind of documents or boxes in the room. Actually, Lance was one of a few people who had their own supplies here. He didn’t know what to think about it, but he liked to believe that it was because he was somehow  _ special. _

Keith had to do only three flowers, since they discussed the tattoo earlier and Lance decided that he didn’t want these geometric ones colored. It was actually better, because they wasted some time on previous sessions and Keith had no idea if he could fit Lance for one more. Actually, he probably  _ could  _ do it, but it was not good to discuss it last minute. Lance didn’t even realize when Keith started tattooing him – it was impossibly how fast he managed to get used to it. From what Hunk was telling him earlier, he thought he would literally cry in pain, but, surprisingly, he didn’t at all. The first two sessions were kind of painful, but far away from what he thought they would be. Maybe the needle in his skin wasn’t really  _ pleasing,  _ but definitely acceptable. It was nothing he could actually  _ hate.  _ What more, Keith’s fingers felt even gentler against his skin, even though Lance thought it wasn’t possible at all. He was brushing against Lance’s forearm while tattooing his shoulder and he could hardly take it.

Keith seemed like a completely different person, as if who he was two weeks ago just faded away, replaced by who he was right now. Lance couldn’t lie – he liked this confident Keith a little more, but this usual one was still pretty good. Keith seemed to consist of many personalities and it was only a matter of a day which one was showing when. Lance couldn’t believe it, but he was falling in love with him more and more each day, each minute, each  _ second  _ even. When he told it to Pidge and Hunk, they didn’t know whether to laugh or congratulate him. In the end, they did both things, causing Lance to yell at them. He was just constantly rambling about his love life for hours and  _ everyone  _ could get more or less sick of it. He didn’t care at all, because he knew how hyped Hunk was when he first confessed to Shay.

“Can you please stop clenchin’ your fist so much? We’re almost done, but you need to cooperate,” Keith scolded him softly, using a similar tone as to Shiro. He did a few last moves of a needle, focusing so much he forgot to breathe for a little while. He later told Lance to close his eyes, when he got up to quickly go get a paper towel and a mirror. He pressed the towel to Lance’s arm and proceeded to take away all of the remaining ink and eventual blood. He was smiling all the time when Lance was asking if he could open his eyes already. Keith declined every single time when it was happening, because he wanted it all to be extremely perfect. He looked at it from every angle possible as he could literally see Lance struggling not to open his eyes. Keith told him he could only have to wait a few seconds more and really, after that time, Lance’s eyes flew open, causing him to gasp loudly.

“This is  _ so fucking good!  _ How the  _ hell  _ do you even do it? Romelle is gonna absolutely adore this!” Lance started moving like crazy, smiling wider than he could ever think possible. Keith sat there, listening to all the complements Lance had for him. It was weirdly flattering, none of his clients had ever done a thing like that. “You’re a fucking  _ god,  _ Keith! No doubt I had fallen in love with you, you’re amazing,” Lance shrugged as if it was the most common thing to say. Maybe for him it was, but Keith was frozen in his stool, looking at Lance’s face, reluctant to even gaze into his eyes. “It’s so sick! You probably hear that a lot, but you’re the best tattoo artist ever, when I have some spare money, I will undoubtedly come to you again. I mean, I will still come to you even if I don’t have money, it’s what love is about, right? I think so, at least that’s what Hunk tells his girlfriend. Oh! I don’t think I’ve ever told you about them, you’ll have to meet them for sure!” Lance completely lost the point of his speech, but it didn’t stop him from looking at Keith with this fond, lovestruck stare and from talking nonsense as well.

“Thanks,” Keith said weakly, not being capable of anything else. He was smiling all the time, amazed by the way he admired Lance’s talking, even if he lost track after a minute or so. For him, Lance could be talking for hours and he still wouldn’t get sick of him. “But don’ move now, I gotta wrap it up. You’ll need to be super careful with it, ‘kay? Your arm’s gonna get really sensitive, so you can use these creams you brought me once, good?” Keith asked him a couple of questions, turning around to get the foil, then wrapping it around Lance’s tattooed arm. Before it, he gently rubbed the special cream in. Keith appeared to be completely different, but he turned out to be impossibly gentle. Lance had no idea if he was like that towards every of his clients, but it was already awesome that Keith was acting like this towards him. “Can you move your arm a little closer to me and stretch it out a bit?” He asked, trying his best to wrap it up perfectly. He knew that Lance would have to unwrap it later anyway, but still, he had a whole day and his tattoo had to be protected as well as possible.

“Yeah,” Lance immediately did as he was told and closed his eyes, enjoying the process. Skin on Keith’s fingers was extremely soft, even though it looked completely different. Lance really knew that he had fallen in love with the right person. Every single one of his previous partners had the  _ looks,  _ but as Lance thought about it now, they lacked personality. Lance was stupid back then, he knew that. He rarely thought about what the person was  _ really  _ like and now, as it changed, he didn’t know which one of two scenarios would be better – changing his attitude earlier and finding someone or being  _ here  _ right now, in love with Keith. He had no idea what the first one would be really like, so he decided to go with the second one, as it appeared to be pleasing as hell.

He was smiling all the time, especially when Keith finished and patted his arm gently, trying to measure if the foil wasn’t wrapped a little too tightly by accident. It was important to make Lance feel as comfortable as possible if he had to go with it for the whole day and a few hours the next few days.

“‘kay, now listen carefully,” Keith looked Lance in the eyes, playing with his own fingers at the same time. “I know we’ve been through this already, but I’m obligated to tell you when we’re finished, so now. You need to have this foil on for the whole day today, but  _ don’ _ wear it at home later. The tattoo needs to…  _ breathe?  _ As weird as it sounds, it has to. So, wear it only to sleep and to work, not more! ‘kay, and use this cream, I’ll give it to you later, and as I said before, you can also use this one you have at home, it’s gonna work. Oh! And  _ don’ _ wipe it when you’re dryin’ your body, it’s gonna get super messed up, we don’t want it. You need to press the towel to it and let the water soak into it… naturally?  _ Naturally?  _ I think it’s a good word, fuck, yeah. You don’ need to come for a consultation, we can phone and schedule it at yours, if it’s good? I hope it is. Also, shit, I hope I told you everythin’, ‘kashi’s gonna kill me if I—”

“Now, you’re the one rambling,” Lance smiled, pressing his finger to Keith’s lips, but soon enough he decided to replace it with his own ones. They  _ confessed,  _ so kissing shouldn’t be anything weird. Keith’s lips were the next impossibly soft thing, tasting weirdly sugary, but Lance loved it. Before he knew it, he walked to the door and locked it, so nobody would interrupt them.

Keith seemed really nervous and worried, mainly about Lance’s arm, because it could still be sore from the tattooing and Keith didn’t want any damage done just because of the  _ kissing.  _ Lance had to reassure and comfort him, whispering right into his ear that everything was fine and nothing was hurting him. It was true, Lance tried his best to be careful with this arm, besides, Keith had done a good job wrapping it, so Lance could barely experience any uncomfortable feelings. Lance ended up hugging Keith tightly and gently kissing his lips and his cheeks as well. It was by far the best experience in Lance’s whole life – he had  _ never  _ met someone like that before and he was glad as hell that this first one was Keith.

It was getting heated extremely fast, but they both still remained delicate, as if they were scared to somehow hurt each other. It was Keith’s first relationship of that kind and he had no idea what to do, except clinging to Lance and kissing him as well as he could manage. Keith loved the feeling Lance was making up right there, it was impossible at first, but the longer it lasted, the more convinced Keith was becoming. After ten or so minutes he realized that he was doing that – he was definitely, with no actual doubt, kissing the boy who confessed to him during their previous appointment. Keith’s whole world was practically spinning around right in front of his eyes. He could only focus on Lance’s sweet, citrus scent, mixing up with the heat and the smell of inks in the room. The situation looked exactly like taken out from some kind of a movie and it took Keith a few more minutes to process that it was  _ really _ happening, right now, in real life, not in front of the screen.

Keith got this involved in the whole situation that, in between a few little whimpers, he started to pull off Lance’s shirt. He didn’t seem to be against it, but Keith still decided to look him deeply in the eyes, asking for permission. It was always better to be sure. They broke a kiss to let Keith take off Lance’s shirt completely and just throw it on the chair. Everything was perfectly sterilized, they didn’t have to care about it getting somehow dirty. Their hands were mindlessly tracing the other’s body, but Keith was still fully dressed up.

He was more than just reluctant to take off his tank top, even though Lance insisted that he looked perfect, more than perfect, actually. Keith didn’t want to show Lance his body, and Lance didn’t feel like pushing him. It was all purely consensual and he wasn't up to ruining it at all. But Keith  _ wanted to.  _ He wanted to show Lance his tattoos, show him that he trusted him, that everything was okay. It took him a few minutes, filled with Lance gently stroking his head and kissing his lips passionately yet softly. Keith gave Lance permission by one long stare into his eyes and a gentle squeeze of his shoulder. Lance slowly took Keith’s top off, smiling slightly. He could  _ not  _ stop admiring every single inch of him. Keith was perfect, even if he didn’t think like that himself.

They felt like they were dancing in the tattooing room, but, in fact, they were standing in the middle of it and kissing softly. Keith was melting under Lance’s touch, especially when they moved slightly to the wall and Keith’s back was pushed against it. He immediately put his arms up, giving Lance full permission to come as close as he wanted. He kissed Keith again, wanting to experience it as much as possible. This time, it was even more passionate than before, but Lance still didn’t lose any of his previous gentleness. Keith thought that it was impossible to fall in love with someone  _ more,  _ but Lance was proving him wrong all the time. The way he touched Keith’s body was  _ awesome,  _ the best thing he could ever experience.

Keith felt literally  _ on fire.  _ His body was nicely heated up with pleasure, a feeling he had actually never experienced before. It was good, so good he almost forgot to breathe for a moment, but Lance reminded him to do it as soon as he realized what was happening. They actually ended up laughing and sitting on the table right after they finally stopped kissing. It was weird, extremely unusual for both of them, but they were glad it turned out exactly this way.

“Hey,” Lance said quietly, smiling and slightly touching Keith’s hand. He felt weirdly shy and embarrassed, even though he was literally  _ kissing  _ Keith a second before, and now he was scared to just  _ grab  _ his hand like any other human being would. Keith’s head dropped a little and his hair completely covered it, but Lance knew it was by no means a bad thing. Keith’s shoulders started shaking as he laughed quietly, but didn’t move even a little. Lance couldn’t see his face at all, but he knew he just  _ had to  _ look perfect. “Can I—?” He acted like a stupid teenager, but it was nothing he could care about at that moment. He could be as dumb as it took, only to be with Keith, no matter how much it sounded like pure nonsense. Lance looked away for a moment, admiring his tattoo, while Keith was still laughing softly. He had no particular reason to be doing that, but he did it anyway, causing Lance to lose it more and more each second.

“Yeah,” Keith finally looked back, locking gazes with Lance and nearly drowning in the perfect, ocean blue eyes of his. Keith had  _ never  _ seen a color like this on _ anyone  _ and he didn’t even think it was actually possible. He intertwined their fingers, surprisingly starting to laugh again. “It’s a shame I haven’t met you sooner, you’d be a fine pair on ‘kashi’s wedding,” he said, looking away again, but Lance didn’t take that as an insult. “Oh, fuck! I’m stupid, Lance. ‘kashi didn’t have a fuckin’ wedding, what the actual fuck,” Keith started wheezing and made Lance laugh like crazy as well. There wasn’t anything  _ actually  _ funny about it, but the whole situation was just simply hilarious and they couldn’t  _ not  _ laugh. “Hey! It’s still possible to go to his wedding together, what the fuck, that’s cool,” Keith couldn’t believe in what was happening right now.

“Now, you’re the talkative one,” Lance stated as if it wasn’t obvious. The whole thing was weird, they were completely different than even half an hour ago. They also knew they should probably end their appointment, but nobody was coming to tell them to hurry, so they supposed they still had time. Even if they didn’t, Keith had the next client in three hours, so… he could spend the remaining minutes (hours, probably) with Lance only. He genuinely started feeling like he had known him for his whole life, even though it’s only been three months, actually. “Not that I’m complaining about it, but it’s still kinda new,” Lance squeezed Keith’s hand, as he watched Keith’s expression change. If Lance thought that it was impossible to smile even wider, Keith was there to prove him wrong.

“I  _ was  _ talkin’ before, I dunno what you wanna prove right now, Lance.”

They were both more than happy to just sit there and tease each other as if they were an old married couple. Keith had never felt like that before and he couldn’t lie, it was definitely a pleasing thing. He always thought that relationships were stupid, that he didn’t need it, and even when he grew to accept the fact that he _ could  _ possibly be in one, it still wasn’t the same. After Shiro’s accident he had a hard time believing in  _ anything,  _ love included. He thought that it was just an addition, not a new kind of perspective, as it was for both Shiro and Adam. Keith accepted that fact after a while (a long one), but it was still too far away for him to actually  _ understand.  _ Lance made it a lot better, Keith finally got what Adam had done to Shiro. He made him a completely different person, but it was for the better. Lance was doing the exact same things for Keith, but he was ready to take it. Relationships were still impossibly new for him and he also knew it would take him a moment or two to actually get what was going on, but Lance seemed like a person who would wait until Keith gets comfortable.

Also, Lance was worth everything Keith could ever want to achieve. He was a little like Adam, but Keith couldn’t be completely sure about it. Shiro had been with his boyfriend for years now, they were acting a lot different from Keith and Lance. They were awfully affectionate, but Keith somehow got to accept it and ignore, still, it sometimes annoyed the shit out of him. He knew he wasn’t ready to do it with Lance, at least not in front of everyone. When they were alone, Keith could do many things, but as he thought about even  _ holding hands  _ in public, he knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as he would like it. However, Lance didn’t seem to care about it. He wasn’t this kind of person to take things easy and with little steps, but he  _ could  _ change everything for Keith, no matter how stupid it sounded. Keith was glad to have someone like him close, it really made his life easier, especially when they got to know each other better.

Lance was this person you simply couldn’t dislike. He had this weird aura Keith couldn’t miss when they met for the tattoo designing three months before. He was overly talkative, rambling all the time, but his voice had  _ something  _ in it. Something hypnotizing you couldn’t miss. Lance’s personality was amazing, even though he could seem annoying as hell, Keith lost it somewhere in the middle. He, of course, thought of Lance as this annoying kid you get to meet some time through your high school days, but it only got better and better with each session. Lance started revealing more of his relationships with his friends and family and it was right when Keith knew he wanted to be a part of Lance’s world, even if he wanted to deny it at first.

Keith fell in  _ love  _ quickly, but realized it fully right when they kissed and were now sitting, smiling fondly at each other. He now knew that his life was going out exactly as he would want it, even though he never thought about it that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you all enjoyed!!!


	9. date no.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally go on a date and Keith has no idea what he's doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY!!! sorry y'all have to wait so long, just enjoy the chapter!!!

Keith had been running around the apartment for hours now, annoying the shit out of both Shiro and Adam. He couldn’t believe that Lance had actually invited him for a date. Well, maybe they confessed, kissed, held hands and did every little thing people who are in love do, but going on an actual  _ date,  _ it was impossible for Keith. Lance actually invited him to a park for “a talk” and Keith had no idea what it was going to be about. He went there anyway, because what could he do? It was on Sunday, a few days after their last appointment and Keith could with no doubt say that he was absolutely _ freaking out. _ “A talk” never meant a good thing, at least from his point of view, but he also didn’t know what could go wrong. They still weren’t even officially together, so Lance couldn’t do something like  _ breaking up _ with Keith, since it wouldn’t make any sense.

When they met, it all became a little clearer. Lance was smiling, so this talk couldn’t be as bad as Keith thought, but still, there could always be something that wouldn’t be right. But when Lance decided to ask Keith if he wanted to go on a date with him, Keith was almost sure that he’d lost everything. It took him a minute or two to realize what the hell had just happened and another thirty or so seconds to  _ respond  _ to that. First, he was stuttering like crazy since it had been the first time  _ ever  _ when someone invited him somewhere by  _ themselves.  _ Keith used to invite people sometimes, but they almost always said that he was too weird to go out with him and after an accident he completely lost himself and didn’t go  _ at all.  _ Lance was the first person to change that and Keith couldn’t lie, he almost cried when Lance suggested it. After he calmed himself down, he eagerly confirmed that  _ yes, I’d love to go on a fuckin’ date with you, Lance. _

And now Keith had to figure out every kind of date thing on his own, trying not to annoy his brother to death. Keith  _ knew  _ he was being ridiculous, but who wouldn’t, if it came to a boy like Lance? Keith couldn’t imagine their meeting going wrong because of  _ him,  _ because of the fact that he couldn’t cooperate. The first thing he realized was that his clothes would most likely be a disaster. He threw all of them from the closet three times and still couldn’t find the right set for this occasion. He’d  _ seen  _ Lance, he could rock any type of outfit with barely any effort, which Keith was sure he couldn’t do himself. Lance looked like a person who could pick random clothes from his closet in the morning and somehow make it appear  _ awesome,  _ even if they simply weren’t meant to look good together. Keith could spend hours preparing an outfit and then realize he looked  _ bad  _ and just throw on a random pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. It was basically what Keith’s closet looked like and when it came to any kind of fancy outfit, he knew he was undoubtedly screwed.

“Shiro!” He yelled desperately, running out from his room and stepping into the living room a few seconds after. His face was flushed with something that was a mixture of heat and anger, as he realized he had absolutely no idea what to do. “Do you by any means have… a jacket or a coat, I dunno, I could borrow?  _ Please,  _ ‘kashi, I dunno what to do, fuck this shit,” he was both yelling and mumbling at the same time, Shiro could only sit here with a weird look on his face. He didn’t know what to think, his brother was never like that and he couldn’t lie – it was damn entertaining. Keith was far more scared than Shiro could ever get before his first date with Adam, what was undoubtedly weird. They were blood-related after all, but as he quickly realized, completely different at the same time.

“Just try to stain it,” Shiro decided to say this instead of an actual answer to his brother’s question, even if it made him even more panicked. Shiro knew that Keith was overreacting and it would probably be gone in a few minutes at best. Not that he was freaking out for the past half an hour, it didn’t occur to Shiro. Maybe he was a little too busy spending time with Adam, but it couldn’t be that bad, could it? Everything was planned, literally  _ everything,  _ so Keith could easily calm down whenever he wanted. But it seemed like he wasn’t going to do it in near future. He was still standing in the middle of the living room, closer to crying than he’d ever been before.

“I’m  _ sorry,”  _ he emphasized, coming a little closer and looking Shiro in the eyes, but it did literally nothing. “I just have to look pretty, okay?” Shiro almost choked on air when he heard this one. Keith  _ never,  _ literally  _ never  _ wanted to look  _ pretty  _ for anyone. Shieo suspected Lance must have been someone extremely special and important if he made Keith care about things he didn’t bother to even  _ think  _ about before. It would be cute if Keith wasn’t almost running around the apartment and crying because he  _ had no idea what he was doing. _

“Oh God, fine, you can take whatever you want,” Shieo finally answered somehow properly. He thought it was finally gonna calm Keith down even a little bit, but instead, it turned out to be completely opposite. Keith weirdly jumped right after Shiro said this one sentence and looked around and it looked like he’d lost something and was now desperately trying to find it. He looked a little like a child who went to kindergarten for the first time, lost, excited, scared, all at the same time. “What? What’s wrong?” Shiro asked, his big brother mode finally turning on. It was fun at first, but he quickly realized that his brother was really anxious about the whole date and relationship thing. It had never happened to him before, so no doubt he had no idea how to react.

“Thanks, but,” Keith inhaled right before bursting out like a literal teenager who  _ thought  _ he could make it, but didn’t. “What the fuck  _ should _ I even wear!?”

“Don’t we have enough clothes?” Shiro thought that Keith didn’t even hear his offer, at least he was acting like this. His mind had visible problems adjusting to whatever was happening around him and it must’ve been terrifying. Shiro started to see all of these little things that he was doing when he was starting dating Adam. The way Keith was moving back and forth, taking little, insanely tiny steps. The way he tried to articulate his needs, but instead of somehow calm words, they came out scared, loud and stuttery. Shiro  _ wished  _ he could help him, but there was really nothing he could do. He knew it was just a matter of time before Keith was going to be calm again – precisely, it would most likely happen right when Lance would come take him.

_ “Yes,  _ we have enough fuckin’ clothes, but I can’t just  _ wear  _ them! They’re not  _ pretty,  _ ‘kashi, that’s the point! I can’t wear it,  _ fuck,  _ I can’t wear damn  _ sweatpants!”  _ Keith was literally on the verge of tears, trying his best to keep himself somehow steady, but he was losing it every second. More and more things were occurring to him and he didn’t like that at all. He knew he couldn’t just block out his mind, no matter how hard he wished for it to happen. “Dammit, ‘kashi! I  _ only  _ have fuckin’ sweatpants! I can’t go out like that, well, I have one pair of jeans, but fuck, what if it’s not good?  _ Fuck this shit,”  _ he was once mumbling, once yelling at full volume, noticing how his hands started to shake. He knew it was yet another habit he’d developed from Lance, but now he didn’t want to even think about him. It was only making Keith more and more nervous and he wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

“Well, you can take mine or Adam’s, if you want,” Shiro repeated himself, shocked that he still wasn’t losing it. He was calmly answering all of his brother’s questions, even if they seemed pretty stupid or ended up with Keith yelling back at Shiro. As soon as Takashi told him about clothes once again, Keith looked Adam dead in the eyes, confusing him a little bit. Adam was a little less buff and tall than Shiro, so his clothes would most likely fit Keith rather well, so he decided to ask him about it  _ immediately. _

“Hey, Adam,” Keith said a little reluctantly, his eyes now practically stabbing the floor with a cold, embarrassed gaze. Adam looked up at him, smiling, as he really felt like Keith was his son. It was damn funny, but he knew that what Keith needed now was support, so he decided to give it to him as fast as possible, even though it was hard for him to keep a straight face. All he wanted to do was laugh a little bit, because Keith’s behavior was  _ exactly  _ like Shiro’s, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. “Can I borrow your clothes?  _ Please,”  _ Keith put an impossible amount of pressure at the last word, sounding like he was really forcing back tears. Adam was torn between laughing and tightly embracing Keith  _ right now,  _ but he stuck to sitting on the couch like he did before.

“My God…” Adam mumbled, hiding his wide smile behind his palms. It was all hilarious and trying not to laugh was like the hardest challenge  _ ever.  _ And Adam thought that passing his college finals was hard, this situation decided to prove him  _ completely  _ wrong. “Yeah, okay, you can have them,” he finally answered, looking at Keith who was now crouching by the small cabinet and throwing all of Adam’s clothes out, trying to find the best ones for a date. Keith truly looked impossibly ridiculous like that, especially until he realized that sitting in silence was not an actual option. Usually, he would just finish not saying even a single word, but now he understood that it wouldn’t happen as he earlier thought it would. Adam watched as his almost a son started rambling like crazy – a thing he had never, _ never ever  _ done before.

“Hey, do you also do that? I mean, it’s fuckin’ stupid, kinda, maybe, I dunno. Do y’all also date people you tattoo? Not you, Adam, but maybe… no, not quite, ‘kashi’s datin’ you— fuck! Is this… is it maybe some new weird kind of friendship? People say  _ I love you  _ platonically, yeah? Maybe— maybe it’s like that? I mean, it could always be somethin’ like this, don’ ya think?” His accent was starting to be more and more thick, Adam didn’t know whether he should be amused or concerned. Keith  _ never  _ actually talked like that at home, well, not  _ that much,  _ since he knew Adam had a literal shit ton of trouble trying to understand him, but now he seemed to be so stressed that nothing could really stop him. He kept talking nonsense for a while longer, completely messing up words and  _ combining  _ them into weird, barely making any sense sentences which took Adam a few minutes to process. He looked at Shiro trying to get help from him, but he also seemed like he lost track somewhere in the middle of Keith’s weird ass speech. They both turned their eyes at him, which he didn’t even notice at first, too busy talking and throwing Adam’s clothes all over the floor. Finally, after a moment or two, he turned around to face his brother and his boyfriend with an impossibly lost look on his face.  _ “What now?  _ I’m stressed, ‘kay?” He sounded almost as if he was blaming then for only God knew what and it became even more hilarious than earlier.

After a few minutes he managed to find something that could actually do for a date. A painfully usual, yet somehow nice and pretty black turtleneck and a weird, also dark belt that could correspond with his jeans at some point. He was actually proud of himself, since it took him only ten minutes, maybe less, to find it all. He started saying random stuff again, right before realizing that he should probably go and get ready, since as he was thinking about it now, he had  _ a lot  _ to do to make himself look acceptable for… wherever Lance was taking him. They decided on a surprise, but Keith was slowly starting to regret it. He had no idea what he should  _ actually  _ wear or how to act, and, most importantly, if his tattoos were gonna bother anyone or not. He wanted to say that  _ no, they wouldn’t,  _ even though there was nothing he could be sure about.

“Okay, Keith, better hurry if you don’t wanna be late!” Shiro yelled after Keith right when he was storming to the other room to finally dress himself up and see if he could even go out like this. Not that he had any other choice, but Shiro would always find something for him last minute if he really needed it. The silence in the apartment was painfully odd, since Keith had been yelling for the past few hours and now everything went quiet. Shiro even wanted to take advantage of that, but as he realized quickly, it wouldn’t really be happening.

“Shiro!” Keith shouted, fluently switching between calling his brother by his first name and a nickname right after. Normally, he could never do that, but the situation he’d gotten himself into was too unusual for him to even attempt to think straight. “He’ll come get me, right? Or not— he won’t. Or will he? Fuck, Shiro, help me,” the way Keith’s voice sounded said that something  _ bad  _ was happening, not that he was just going on a  _ date.  _ Shiro could  _ not  _ stop laughing anymore. It took him a few minutes to start breathing like a properly functioning human being and answer Keith, but he was still smiling until his face began to actually hurt.

“I mean,” Shiro almost wheezed as he tried his best to yell loudly enough for his brother to hear. “That’s  _ Lance,  _ so he’ll come for sure,” he laughed yet again, slightly snuggling into Adam’s side as they waited for Keith to come out of his room. Instead, they heard a loud  _ thump,  _ meaning Keith had probably tripped over something. In fact, they were sure about that, since he cursed right after that.

“Since  _ when  _ do you know what  _ Lance _ is doin’!?”

“One word,” Shiro saw his brother leaving his room and, in fact, he looked  _ good.  _ Takashi was actually most of the time making fun of him as older siblings do, but now he couldn’t lie. Keith looked impossibly nice, only a bit of his neck tattoo was visible, making him appear a little more  _ usual.  _ Not that he was ashamed of them, because he most definitely wasn’t, but he still didn’t feel fully comfortable with coming to a (probably fancy) place with his  _ date.  _ “Hunk,” he finished, looking at his brother who stood there in front of him, probably trying not to cry. Instead, he jumped right when he heard the bell ringing. It wasn’t supposed to be happening  _ right now,  _ he still had time, at least that was what he wanted to believe. He wasn’t aware of how much time he spent choosing his outfit. Actually, hours were almost like minutes and he really thought that he had at least another half an hour left. Turned out he didn’t and it was stressing him out more than he could ever admit.

“Shiro!” He cried out, grabbing his brother’s coat from the hanger, but still couldn’t make his body move more than to take this one piece of clothing. “Oh my God,” Keith didn’t know if he wanted to cry, yell or just hide under the table right now, probably all at the same time and he was pretty sure he would do it. He looked at Shiro, desperately seeking any form of help, but his brother was found on the couch with Adam on his lap.

“What?” They both asked, pulling the vowels so they sounded almost like they were singing. Keith started shifting like crazy and putting on his (Shiro’s) coat while endlessly staring at the door. After a minute or two he finally looked in his brother’s direction. His eyes were filled with pure  _ fear,  _ but Shiro could see something that he would actually describe as excitement, even though it was barely visible.

“Maybe… just maybe it’s a courier, ‘kay? Tell me it’s a courier, ‘kashi! A very, fuckin’ handsome courier with a damn pretty, blue cadillac— a courier, right?” Keith was losing everything he thought he could keep together only a minute ago. Now he had no idea what was happening and what he was talking about – it all probably didn’t make sense, not even a tiny bit, but he wasn’t thinking straight enough to care about it. All he could (try to) think about was that Lance was probably waiting for him and he didn’t know what to do. His legs seemed to be glued to the floor, no matter how hard he tried to move, it was absolutely impossible.

“Just come out to him!” Shiro suggested, still not moving from the couch. Adam was giggling in his arms, whispering multiple embarrassing stories from  _ their  _ first date, even more of them when he heard that Shiro was getting slightly annoyed with his brother. When he was younger, he was practically the same and for Adam, he had no right to judge Keith for his behavior.

“Why?” Keith yelled back at him, finally finding the courage to take a few steps, but he still was too far away from the door to open it. If he tried, it would look hilarious as hell, but he would probably risk falling down right in front of Lance and he definitely  _ couldn’t  _ let it happen. He was already scared he might do something unacceptable and also embarrassed as hell, but he couldn’t tell  _ why.  _ He was already trying his best and he couldn’t waste it. “I don’  _ wanna!”  _ He ostentatiously whined, leaving his brother practically facepalming himself right after.

“Keith, I can’t go on this date for you,” he smiled, but he didn’t know what to feel anymore. It was impossibly weird and no, Adam  _ wasn’t  _ right when he was saying that Shiro was freaking out literally the same way before. It wasn’t true, even though Keith would probably confirm all of that.

_ “Please!” _

“Just get out!” Shiro yelled playfully, ready to stand up and shove his brother through the door if necessary. Keith was ready to complain again and Shiro, to be honest, was lost and torn between two things. He wanted to listen to his brother and see what was actually bothering him this time and from the other side, it was always about the same, and he really should be going out now if he didn’t want the whole situation to become even more ridiculous than it already was. Keith was acting a bit like a child, it wasn’t anything bad, but Shiro had no actual idea how to help him. Listening was the only option, but Keith was already running late, it would be bad if he started rambling like crazy once again.

“I  _ can’t  _ go out like this!” As he thought, Keith started yelling, not even bothered by the fact that Lance was probably still standing by the door and he could easily hear everything. Shiro didn’t feel like breaking the news to his brother, since he could literally start crying or do literally anything he shouldn’t be doing right before his date. “I look  _ horrible,  _ Shiro! God, no, Adam,  _ please!”  _ Everything he was saying sounded stupid or even worse, he knew, deeply in his mind that he was gonna regret it when he finally calmed himself down, but right now, he wasn’t thinking  _ at all. _ He  _ tried to, _ of course, but quickly realized he wasn’t capable of that.

Shiro stood up with Adam by his side and they both slowly walked up to Keith. They knew it was time when they stopped quietly making fun of him and started to be supportive instead. Keith looked absolutely frightened trying to get himself together, he was almost shaking from stress and every, even the smallest, emotion in his mind. His whole body was visibly overwhelmed with feelings, he seemed pretty uncomfortable because of it. Shiro _ knew  _ how his brother was feeling and he wished he could take it away, but in reality, he could barely do  _ anything  _ to make it somehow better. Words couldn’t calm Keith down as much as he would want to, but they were doing  _ something.  _ It was better than nothing for all of them.

“Keith, listen to me,” Shiro gently placed his arm on Keith’s shoulder, bringing him a little closer. He knew his brother didn’t hug people a lot, so this time it would only make things worse. Slight physical contact seemed to be good enough to work with Shiro’s words, at least that was what he assumed. “You look cute, handsome, I would say. There’s nothing wrong with what you’re wearing and how you look like in general, okay? I’m sure Lance will like it as well, so just go and have fun, alright?” It could’ve sounded like Shiro wasn’t sure about what he was saying, but he knew his brother needed reassuring by asking him questions, even if it appeared dumb at first, it helped.

“Aw, you think I’m  _ cute,  _ that’s nice of you, old man,” Keith laughed and it seemed that he was already distressed and ready to go. The key was –  _ seemed.  _ Because in fact he was rather away from it. “But tell me  _ why  _ is he standing there like an idiot? Can’t he just enter this damn house? It’s stressful!” Keith whined, glancing at the door, behind which he saw Lance who was looking like waiting didn’t bother him at all. Keith could only see his face but  _ damn,  _ this boy was fine and it didn’t make things better.

“Maybe he’s waiting for you to come out, you know?” Shiro  _ tried  _ talking it seriously, but could barely hold it anymore.  _ Again. _

“But  _ why!?” _

“You have a  _ date!” _

These words seemed to finally change Keith’s mind. He began slowly walking to the door, probably far too slow, as Shiro started yelling at him to hurry up. It took him a minute to finally manage to grab the doorknob and open the door even slower. It looked impossibly hilarious, but Shiro and Adam weren’t even watching it anymore. They went back on the couch, finally being able to get the rest they needed. It was impossible how exhausting dealing with stressed Keith was.

Keith opened the door and stood there in awe, yet extremely pleased with what he was seeing. Lance looked like a god with an impossibly perfect tuxedo and even better, baby blue shirt. He was thinking he tried too hard, but for Keith everything was absolutely how it should be, all of his worries suddenly disappeared, he could only think about the fact that he had this beautiful boy right in front of him. It took them a moment to realize that they should probably say something, but instead of it, Keith just closed the door and then looked back into Lance’s eyes.

“Hey,” Keith finally said, having his voice back. He was way too mesmerized with how Lance looked to think straight, be he also didn’t want to appear weird, so he decided to talk and try to make it as casual as possible, even though he knew literally nothing about dating stuff.

“Hi, Keith,” Lance answered softly, hesitantly reaching for Keith’s hand, as if he was somehow scared he may be doing things too fast. It probably wasn’t true, but Lance learnt that Keith was a lot more complex than he appeared to be and Lance wanted to make him comfortable more than anything else. Struggles on Keith’s face were visible and Lance had no idea what he could do about them, but for real, he couldn’t even pay attention to it for long. Keith was pretty, even when he was so nervous like that. “You look hot…” Lance mumbled after a moment, thinking that Keith was too busy checking his outfit and locking the door to hear, but soon enough he realized how wrong he was. Keith’s face immediately flushed bright red as he looked to the side, trying to tell himself that this is the Lance he’d known for months, the Lance with whom he could talk for hours during their sessions. This was by no means a different person, but still, he was making Keith feel completely different.

“Yeah, you too,” Keith chuckled a little, finally grabbing Lance’s hand to let him know that everything was okay and he didn’t have to worry about something going wrong. Nothing would, even though Keith still wasn’t completely sure about it. “But, what are we doing now?” he asked, squeezing Lance’s hand a little more, right before he slightly pulled Keith to the driveway. It should all be clear now, but Keith’s brain still refused to cooperate.

“We’re getting into my car first,” he answered patiently. He’d been through this with several people before, but nobody made him feel like Keith did. Lance was getting annoyed pretty easily, but it was nearly impossible with Keith. He could be answering him all the time, saying everything as many times as needed. He guessed he just adored Keith more than anything else in this world. They slowly walked to the car, both trying not to think too much, so they just stuck to looking at each other, at least until they finally got in. “I booked a table in a Mexican restaurant nearby, if that’s okay,” Lance said, starting the car. Keith looked at him, placing his own hand back in his thigh, realizing he couldn’t have his fingers intertwined with Lance’s while he was driving. “We can always change it if it doesn’t suit you.” Keith couldn’t believe his ears. Lance was nice as hell, but something wasn’t sitting right with Keith and he wasn’t going to leave it like that.

“What the fuck? No, we cannot change it fuckin’ last minute! It’s like, what, ten minutes before? What the hell, Lance? We’re going there, okay?” He had no idea whether he was talking too much or not, but it didn’t even matter anymore. He had to tell Lance what he was thinking about it, no matter how weird it sounded.

“Oh,” Lance mumbled, before clearing his throat and speaking up. “I just didn’t know if you like Mexican food and I forgot to phone you before, and then I booked a table, and I had no more time to ask you, and…” Lance started rambling, but Keith decided to cut him off rather quickly.

“I like whatever you do!” He blurted out randomly, immediately turning his head to the side. He never thought he would say something like this and now, when he finally did, he couldn’t look Lance in the eyes anymore, at least for a while. It was far too ridiculous for his liking, though it didn’t stop this weird, tight feeling in his chest. He didn’t know what to do with that, it felt worse than when they kissed for the first time, but he thought that it was a problem for another time. “I… didn’t mean to say that, it was stupid,” he laughed nervously, turning his head back into Lance’s direction to see what he was thinking about it. To his surprise, he didn’t look offended or by any means weirded by what had just happened, he smiled softly, looking slightly like Adam when he stared at Shiro while he was cooking. Love equalled sacrifice and no matter how Keith wanted to deny it, he couldn’t. Adam was proving it every day when he let Shiro cook something, because he knew it just could  _ never  _ end well.

After a few more silent, but pleasing minutes Lance parked the car in front of the restaurant and they both left it quickly. Lance immediately took Keith’s hand like a true gentleman, leading him inside. He audibly gasped when they finally entered, he could never believe how a simple place when you  _ eat  _ could be this perfect. Walls were colorful, printed with many ethnic Mexican symbols, looking like someone literally spent hours designing and then painting them. The whole restaurant was rather small and didn’t look too fancy, which was nice. But Keith still felt like something was wrong.

“Wow, why is this so pretty? Lance, Jesus, it smells so good as well, what the hell?” Then it hit him, as if his mind had just realized what was bothering him ever since they entered. “Am I dressed properly? Or not? Or maybe it’s too bad? Do I look okay? Or I don’t fuck! Lance, hell,” he was whispering to Lance, trying not to sound too suspicious. They walked to the side so they could talk comfortably without anyone noticing.

“Keith, hey.” Lance moved close to him, squeezing his hand gently, trying his best to show him all of his support. “Calm down, okay? You look pretty and I’m glad you like this place. It’s okay, really.” It was the first time when Keith didn’t look convinced with Lance’s comforting.

“Lance, I’m sorry.” Keith couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to be happy and don’t care about anything, but his brain was refusing to accept it, even though Keith really wasn’t fond of all of his blaming… whoever he was blaming, to be honest. He had no idea what to do and what he was  _ actually  _ doing. It was weird and he hoped that it would end quickly. “I’ve never been on a date, ‘kay? I love this place so much, but I’ve no idea how to act here, what if I do somethin’ wrong?”

“Come on,” Lance smiled, grabbing Keith by his wrist and leading him back to their table. “Just be yourself and enjoy our first date, okay? Nothing’s gonna go wrong, I promise.”

They went back and finally sat down. Keith seemed to finally be calming himself down, so he could once again process everything around him. He was surprised by how perfect this place was, slightly reminding him about the times Lance was telling him about his home in Cuba. Even though it was far away from  _ Mexican,  _ Keith still had troubles with defining all of them, but Lance didn’t seem to mind. It was actually too good to be happening in real life, but Lance was  _ very  _ real here, even though Keith was sometimes thinking that he was asleep and it was just a stupid dream.

“This place is perfect!” Keith yelled again, grabbing Lance’s hands and squeezing them tightly and looking around once again, to show him how glad he really was that Lance decided to take him here. “Thank you so much!”

Lance smiled, unable to say anything so he just stuck to staring at Keith. He looked like a literal child happy with the smallest things possible, but it was amazing. He had never seen Keith like that before and he was ready to stare at him for their whole date, even though they were supposed to eat and do stuff people usually do when they go out like that. But Lance had been on multiple dates before and none of them were as good as this one, even though they barely did anything.

Lance usually felt bad when he was almost forced to talk during his previous dates, because his partners weren’t actually interesting. Their hobbies were literally nonexistent and Lance felt extremely weird sitting there and looking at them while they were eating. It was stupid and, usually, ended only on this one date. As Lance looked at it now, he was glad it turned out like this, because he was able to spend his time with Keith now and he oped it wasn’t going to end right when they both came home. It shouldn’t, as they both confessed and Lance could easily see how  _ in love _ Keith was.

They ended up staring at each other and talking for the whole evening, looking each other in the eyes and acting like stupid teenagers. They didn’t actually care, which surprised both of them, especially Keith, who usually was rather aware of how he was acting. But not with Lance. With him Keith could feel good and just be himself, not care about anything. He didn’t realize when they were already coming home and kissed in the car. Shiro and Adam both saw that and Keith knew they weren’t going to let it go quickly, but it was about Lance, so he was ready to accept it.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING!!!


	10. date no.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY YOU GUYS HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG LETS GO TO THE STORY

Keith was sitting in his brother’s apartment, ready to ramble about Lance like crazy yet again. The reason was rather simple – it was Saturday and they were going on a date that day. Keith was not even nearly as scared as the first time and it had only been a week. Him and Lance got incredibly comfortable around each other, even though neither of them thought about officials introducing the other to his family or friends. Keith had already known Pidge and Hunk a little bit, since he was friends with Shiro, but he didn’t feel like he was ready to do something more. They weren’t together for long and wanted to spend more time only with each other before something more serious would happen.

Shiro was looking at Keith all the time, surprised by the fact how a relationship with Lance had changed him. He stopped swearing as much as he did, which was  _ plenty, _ for example. Not that Lance didn’t swear, because he did, but not nearly as much as Keith did before they first met. Lance was doing many good things with Shiro’s brother and it was a shame that he didn’t get to talk to him for a longer time. Lance seemed a little odd, but nice nonetheless, so Shiro was looking forward to meeting him rather soon. He didn’t ask Keith about it, knowing he could stress his brother easily and he didn’t want that, not after everything he’d been through before the first date.

Adam was out to work by the time Keith had come to the apartment, but his brother was home, not bothered by the fact that Keith came inside, yelling and being all happy and lovely like never before. He was, surprisingly, not a really sad, troublesome kid, but he had also never been  _ this  _ lively.

“He said it’s a surprise!” Keith clapped his hands like a child, or a teenager who’d been so lovestruck to the point when he couldn’t be thinking about anything besides his lover. In high school, he’d never cared about love, he had a few friends, of course, but never aspired for more than that. It didn’t bother him, not even in college and not when he was starting to work in the tattoo shop. It was all okay even when he first met Lance, but after a few sessions it all changed. “I tried askin’ him ‘bout it and he told me he had already mentioned it, but Shiro! How am I supposed to remember everythin’ when he was talkin’ so much?” He was rambling a little, though it wasn’t as bad as it had been after the first date. He’d kept Adam and Shiro awake for half the night, because he just  _ had to  _ tell them about everything, mostly about how handsome Lance was, how good he was treating him and how perfect the whole date was.

“You can just wait, he’s gonna be here in half an hour at worst,” Shiro shrugged, but deeply in his heart he was literally melting. Watching his brother becoming so soft and happy was everything he could ever wish for as an older brother. They both weren’t perfect, but none of the siblings in the whole world were, so they didn’t actually think about it for long, they liked it this way and it was the only thing that mattered. “But you seriously don’t remember? Guess you were too  _ lost in his eyes, _ huh?” Shiro joked, which resulted with Keith immediately picking up the pillow and throwing it right into his brother’s face.

“Look at you!” he yelled, literally ready for a battle. “You’ve been way worse after meetin’ Adam.” He was glad that Adam wasn’t here, because he would probably defend his boyfriend. There was also a chance that he would start fighting Shiro along with Keith, but you could never be sure, so it was better that he was at work then. They continued on talking while waiting, Keith bouncing in his seat almost all the time, now realizing how happy he was to go out with Lance again. Before he’d met him, nothing could excite him to this point and he had never thought he could be actually capable of that. “I’m tryin’ to recall everything he’d told me, but, Shiro! You have no idea how much he was talkin’. It actually wasn’t bad at all, he  _ knew  _ what he was doing, this bastard! He wanted to take me out since the beginning and he’d been planning this for  _ weeks!  _ How the hell is he even so smart?” he was wondering out loud, developing the same habit as Lance – talking impossibly fast when curious and excited. It was weird, Keith used to carefully choose his words, then changed into heavy  _ slangy _ , if that’s a word, Texan words nobody could understand sometimes.

“Believe me, I know,” Shiro laughed, sipping coffee from his mug and checking his phone to see if he had any new messages from Adam. He had one, saying that he would come home in a few hours, to which Shiro replied with a simple “okay, love you” and then turned back to his brother. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but I was tattooing his  _ best friend _ and we weren’t silent, Keith. We were  _ talking  _ as well, so believe me, I know how Lance is,” he explained slowly, worrying that if he started talking too fast, Keith would probably stop paying attention. It was already hard as hell, since he’d been way too excited to think clearly.

Keith looked at the TV, trying to prevent himself from staring at his phone all the time, checking for any updates from Lance, even if he knew that he would most likely not get any. Lance wanted  _ everything _ to be a surprise, even the time when he would get to Shiro’s apartment. They were originally supposed to meet at Keith’s, but he was too happy to sit there all by himself, so he immediately pulled up to Shiro’s and started bothering him about his date. This time, however, it was a lot better and calmer, which surprised Shiro at first, but he was glad nonetheless. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Keith was looking around, trying to find something that could catch his eye for a little longer than life seconds. Waiting for Lance was becoming really boring and Keith just wanted to go already. Right now, everything was finally going perfectly okay and yet still, he had to wait.

It was too much for him, he even started to worry that maybe Lance had changed his mind and wasn’t going to come and take him for this date. But after a moment, he’d mentally scolded himself for even thinking about it. Lance was  _ not _ like that, he had to constantly remind himself that everything was perfectly fine and Lance was the cutest human being ever alive, so it was okay.

He glanced over his shoulder at Shiro, who was texting with Adam, who was now probably on his way to the bus, so Keith decided not to disturb his brother. As much as he wanted to talk about Lance again, he knew Shiro also deserved some time for his boyfriend, even if it was only on the phone for an hour or so, before Adam would get home. Actually, Keith  _ was  _ going to say something, but then, he heard a car pulling up to the driveway and a faint knocking on the door right after. He jumped on the couch the same way as before their first date, but now he was filled with pure excitement, so he immediately rushed to the door, giving Shiro quick thumbs up before literally falling into Lance’s arms. They both started giggling like crazy, since Lance had to weirdly step back in order to keep them both somehow steady. He waved at Shiro, who was now talking on the phone, so he just waved back seconds before his brother left and closed the door.

Keith was surprisingly chill and open during this meeting, as he grabbed Lance’s hand almost right after they left. Lance couldn’t fight back the smile, Keith was simply too adorable not to chuckle while looking at him and that was basically what Lance did.

“You ready?” he asked after a moment, making Keith stand in front of the car to check his outfit, mainly to see if he’d followed Lance’s suggestions. Apparently, he did. He was dressed up pretty casually, a pair of sweats, trainers, a completely usual t-shirt and a jeans jacket. He looked like he didn’t try at all, but Lance knew that it wasn’t true. He knew Keith for a while and it was pretty obvious for him that he tried his best every damn time. Lance loved that about him, but, to be honest, he loved literally _ everything  _ about Keith, no exceptions. And Keith adored him for that, obviously, there was no way he could just  _ not  _ do that, somehow.

“Yes!” Keith squeezed Lance’s hand tighter, but let go after a moment, when they had to get inside the car. However, there was still one thought that couldn’t escape his mind, no matter how much he was trying not to think about it. Lance could probably see it rather easily, but Keith couldn’t care less, to be honest. Lance clearly saw the way Keith’s body was shivering with excitement, but didn’t say a word, so Keith was actually forced to ask this question. He didn’t want to at first, as he’d already said it way too many times to Shiro earlier, but he also  _ couldn’t _ just simply keep his mouth shut. “Can I finally know where we’re going?” he whined audibly, turning his head to face Lance, who only smiled and started the car. Keith  _ wanted _ to be angry at him for not answering his question, but the truth was that, it was impossible.

“I told you,” Lance laughed again, pulling out of the parking lot, smiling incredibly wide, as never before, actually. “You already know.”

“No, I  _ don’t!”  _ he playfully yelled at Lance, even though he was far away from being angry. The whole situation was becoming more and more hilarious, Keith would have a hard time denying it. Only if he actually wanted to do it, though, because, in fact, he didn’t. Everything was perfect, but he still  _ didn’t  _ know, it didn’t change that.

“Of course you do,” Lance continued, taking the second left, but Keith still couldn’t recognize this road. “I told you during one of our sessions!” He scolded his… boyfriend? Yes, they would probably call each other like that, even though Keith was a little reluctant. But he guessed it was time to finally put this label on his relationship, both him and Lance seemed to be rather comfortable with it.

_ “How  _ am I supposed to know what you said to me?” Keith exhaled loudly, grabbing the material of his sweats, trying his best to hide a smile. “Do you even  _ realize  _ how much you were talkin’ back then? It’s  _ impossible _ to remember it all!” He completely lost track of everything that was happening on the road, even when they started driving the very much known streets.

“Just  _ think,  _ Keith! We both know that you  _ know,  _ you just have to use your  _ brain!”  _ Lance couldn’t stop laughing now, even though he was trying his best. Still, his eyes were locked on the road, because he needed to make sure that both him and Keith got to the place of their date safe. “Oh, come on! Just look at the road and you’ll know!” Lance seemed to be forgetting one of the most important things – Keith had never been to the place he’d chosen, so how the hell was he supposed to recall the road? Yeah, right, he recognized it, but only because he’d been driving here with Shiro countless times, not because he knew where Lance was taking him.

It wasn’t bothering at all, just started to get a little annoying, since Keith really,  _ really  _ wanted to know and Lance didn’t seem to be helping at all. Keith was pretty much known for hating any kind of surprises, so right when he came back home the other day and told Shiro about Lance’s plans, he was sure that his brother was gonna yell and curse at his boyfriend for doing this kind of stuff. But, surprisingly, Keith started rambling about how caring and lovely Lance was, and also how nice of him it was to set up another date.

At first, Keith didn’t even mention the whole surprise thing, but when he did, Shiro was prepared for everything but what Keith had done. He  _ hugged _ his brother and he was barely doing that before. Last time he hugged him with this much passion was after the accident, when Shiro was coming back home. After that, there was no real occasion for Keith to do it, so he just simply didn’t. A date with Lance also didn’t seem to be an opportunity to do so, but it turned out to be in the end. Shiro was caught absolutely off guard, but appreciated the sudden display of affection from his brother immediately, hugging him back. It felt extremely nice for both of them, even though Keith had started rambling like crazy right after and could barely stop for a few days.

And there he was right now, in the car, looking at Lance who had just parked near a small building. Keith finally paid some attention to his surroundings, realizing how beautiful this place was. A few small windows with light blue shutters and countless little flower pots on the windowsills. Keith could  _ not  _ take his eyes off of this place, especially when he raised his head a little bit, only to meet with a pretty, beige sign board saying “Cinnamon”. Then, it occurred to him. He looked around again, now seeing every single flower around this place, which meant  _ plenty  _ of them.

“It’s your damn flower shop!” Keith blurted out randomly, jumping slightly in his seat, which caused Lance to giggle. “Hey, I remember now! You told me you’d ask Coran ‘bout me comin’, but like, I didn’t expect it to be now!”

“Took you long enough, darling.” Keith couldn’t believe that Lance could actually use pet names to tease him and still make them appear so lovely and affectionate. Keith felt like he was becoming his brother when it came to relationships, but as he soon realized, he didn’t mind it at all. “Okay, come on. Romelle wants to meet you!” Lance was as thrilled as Keith, probably even more. He could finally take Keith with him, as there were no more tattoo sessions and both of them had a little more free time. Well, at least Lance had, but Keith was trying his best to find enough for his boyfriend. Now, he couldn’t be mad at Shiro for going on dates instead of working before, because Keith was doing the exact same thing right now, even though he was trying to work as much as he could, so none of his previous appointments wouldn’t be delayed.

Lance took Keith’s hand when they finally left the car. It took Keith a moment to realize what was happening and where he actually was, so Lance had to take care of literally everything. He quickly led Keith inside the shop, but not  _ too _ quickly, because he knew that Keith tended to be easily overwhelmed with everything and Lance didn’t want to cause anything bad by his surprise. But it turned out that all of his worries didn’t make absolutely any sense. Keith entered the place being absolutely mesmerized and happy with how it looked like. Lance was smiling while looking at his boyfriend, he really couldn’t believe in how cute he was acting right now.

“Hey!” Romelle yelled, waving at them from the counter. She jumped from behind it and sprinted to her friend, first hugging him, then Keith, even though Lance had warned her about not jumping at him like that, but Keith, surprisingly, didn’t mind that at all. He returned the embrace, feeling a little anxious, because he never knew what to do when someone was this affectionate towards him. But Romelle was overly nice and it was just impossible not to like her.

Actually, Keith thought that she was a little weird, but in a good way. It took him surprisingly little time to adjust to Romelle’s behavior and soon enough he was relaxed to the point when he was sitting on the counter and chatting as if he’d known her for his whole life. Lance was kind of amazed by everything that was happening when he stood beside Keith and just listened to them talking about literal  _ nothing. _ After a few minutes it occurred to him that they were definitely  _ not _ doing what they were supposed to, as he didn’t bring Keith here to  _ talk.  _ Well, also, but not only.

“Hey, Romelle, I’m glad you two start to get along, but it’s  _ my date,  _ Romelle, not yours!” Lance playfully yelled at her, smiling widely and grabbing Keith by his waist. “Come on, we didn’t come here to mess around like that.” Then, he pulled Keith by his hand and went to the back room, with Romelle following them and still rambling like crazy. Keith had no idea what they were going to do, but turned out he didn’t exactly  _ need  _ to know, because Lance was here to explain everything, even if it was completely nonverbal.

He pulled Keith a little closer after a moment and made him sit on the floor, while him and Romelle started walking around the room, occasionally disappearing behind a thin curtain, leaving Keith moving his head around like a cat, because he wanted to see  _ everything  _ his boyfriend and his friend were doing. It was hard, but it didn’t stop him from doing so even a little bit. They were bringing more and more flowers and placing them on the floor beside Keith, who now turned around to see if there were any customers, because, when he’d last checked, the shop was opened, even though there was no one besides Romelle inside. However, now, as he glanced at the door, the sign on it read ‘closed’ and Keith had no idea what to think about it. They couldn’t just close the goddamn shop so suddenly, only because he was coming. That was extremely stupid and he didn’t like the idea so much.

“Lance,” he called, when his boyfriend came back with a cute, potted succulent Keith was unable to name. It looked nice, Lance did too, but Keith was too bothered to think about anything else. “Why the  _ fuck  _ is the shop closed? Shouldn’t you, y’know,  _ work  _ and let the customers come inside? Like any damn day, or am I wrong?” he asked, meeting with Lance quickly walking to him and helping him stand up. He didn’t talk for a moment, only smiled widely and it was the first time ever when Keith wished he could read people’s minds. Or, precisely, only this one boy’s mind and only in that exact moment.

“It’s nice you care so much about my income, Keith, but no. We’re closed today.” He shrugged, as if it was the most common thing to say, as if every day like that they had their shop closed, which definitely wasn’t true. “You’re silly,” he added, booping Keith’s nose and handing him a rose right after.

“What do you mean  _ you’re closed today!?  _ You most  _ definitely _ weren’t when we came in!” Keith looked ridiculous (ridiculously _ pretty)  _ waving the flower around while talking. Romelle was quietly looking at them, surprised by how weird their conversation looked. If she knew Shiro and Adam, she probably would’ve sworn that Keith and Lance were exactly like them, which was one hundred percent true, but Keith would never admit it, not even to himself. Mainly because he was  _ nothing  _ like his brother, or, at least, he was trying to convince himself that it was true.

“Yeah, I forgot to turn the sign.” The same way Adam forgot to tell Shiro that he would have to cook for himself, which ended up with Takashi almost blowing up the kitchen. Now, the situation was not as intense as that one, but definitely  _ as  _ hilarious. “But we were planning on closing the shop ever since… even before we went on our first date, I think?” He looked at Romelle, who nodded immediately, smiling, which only made Keith even more confused than before.

“So you… what the  _ fuck, _ you’ve been planning this goddamn date for what… days,  _ weeks  _ maybe? Lance, this— it makes no sense— How the hell, what the—” Keith had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but still, it didn’t stop Lance from staring at him as if it was a literal gem he’d managed to find.

“Yeah, I was hoping for it to happen since like… appointment five, I think?” He smiled widely and went to kiss Keith’s forehead almost immediately. “It was kinda hard to resist your damn charm, okay? Don’t judge me, it’s true! But, nevermind, we’re going.” Then he pulled Keith with himself and they came back to the main room, slowly placing flowers on the counter, chairs, floor, literally everywhere, wherever it was actually possible.

It was mostly Lance who kept running around the place and throwing the flowers everywhere, while Keith was trying his best to keep up with him, which turned out to be harder than he could have ever imagined. Lance knew everything in the shop, everything Keith most definitely didn’t, which made it almost impossible to follow him without constantly looking around and then at his feet, so he didn’t trip or anything like that. Keith had almost dropped a potted plant once or twice, but managed to catch it last second, so no damage was actually done. After a few minutes they were basically done, with Romelle running around them and helping Lance bring everything he needed. It was funny for Keith, even more when Lance told him this was basically how their usual days looked like. Keith began to think that maybe working in a flower shop wasn’t so bad after all, not that he wanted to work here, he didn’t feel  _ that  _ attached to this place, but it was definitely a nice experience.

“Come on!” Lance took his boyfriend’s hand once again, pulling him down with himself and sitting by Romelle’s side. 

She was already picking the right flowers for her own flower crown. Keith was amazed by the way she was moving her fingers and how well she could manage to maneuver the stems to create a literal  _ masterpiece.  _ She looked like she was a literal master of handcrafts, even though it was Keith’s job as well. But tattooing and drawing was definitely different from  _ making goddamn flower crowns.  _ When Lance had handed him flowers to make his own, Keith’s hands started shaking uncontrollably as he was almost unable to focus on his flowers. He couldn’t even hold them properly, so Lance ended up grabbing Keith’s palms and squeezing them gently.

“You have to do it that way,” he began explaining everything to him and Keith could  _ not  _ be more grateful for having him here. This date was literally perfect, even if it wasn’t anything too spectacular. It didn’t have to be – Keith had never been to dates before, so  _ any  _ idea Lance had would be awesome to him. “First, you put this stem under the next one and repeat, and then— no,  _ don’t  _ break them, Keith!” Lance yelled at him, slowly untangling the stem and placing it on his side, taking a new one instead, to help Keith follow his hands to make this crown with no further damage. “Then, you wrap this excess one around the others, see? Good, do you like it?” Lance knew Keith could easily get frustrated and he wanted to make sure he was doing perfectly fine and nothing was bothering him.

But, surprisingly, everything went rather fine and instead of being stressed, he just smiled widely and grabbed the stems again in order to wrap them around and finally create this goddamn crown. It got a bit easier after a few first tries, even though he broke a few of them before and completely damaged over ten flowers, but he didn’t mind that at all, Lance didn’t as well, so it was all perfectly okay.

After a few moments, Keith had his own, very first flower crown made out of dandelions. Lance told him these were probably the ones to make the crown out of the easiest. For Keith, it was still like some kind of black magic, but he couldn’t lie – he liked the results, even though it took him solid twenty minutes to make it. Maybe his hands weren’t as useless when it came to handcrafts as he thought before Lance had taught him about flower crowns.

“Romelle, come here!” Lance waved at his friend, who was focused on making a bouquet for one of her clients. He was about to come that day’s evening, so she still had plenty of time, but she had nothing to do now, so why not start working on it? “Come on, we can tangle it into your hair, Keith, give me a few more flowers!” He called his boyfriend, who immediately crawled to him with a dozen dandelions in his hands. Lance took them with a warm smile and began placing flowers into Romelle’s hair, making it appear like a  _ true crown.  _ He was done after a minute, which was like a record for Keith, but he couldn’t say anything, so he just sat there with his mouth partly opened. “Okay, now smile and hold still!” He quickly grabbed his phone and snapped a few pictures of Romelle. Keith had to admit, she looked absolutely gorgeous with dandelions in her hair, like a princess. It was actually a word Lance used once or twice while describing her, but Keith never thought it would be true. Now, as he could finally see her, he  _ knew  _ Lance wasn’t joking.

“Don’t laugh, you’ll be next!” Lance yelled at him, already posting a picture he’d just taken on the floor shop’s Instagram profile.

Yes, they had one, it was run mostly by Lance, with the help of Romelle and occasional, funny Stories posted by Coran. They all had access to this account, but it didn’t change the fact that it was Lance who spent much more time on it than the others. He was posting multiple pictures of his friends with flowers somewhere around them, sometimes his clients (don’t think anything weird, he  _ always  _ asked for permission). Occasionally he was coming up with completely new projects, like this one with bouquets based on tattoos. He was trying to keep his schedule of one, sometimes two, photos per day ongoing and it was actually working out rather well.

For a second, Lance had actually considered asking Keith whether he liked their date or not, but soon he learnt that it was absolutely unnecessary. Keith was  _ clearly  _ having fun, even though his first attempt to make a flower crown  _ all by himself  _ didn’t work out at all. He laughed at it and threw his damaged flowers right into Lance’s face as a proof that he was having a good time there.

“Look at this!” Lance pulled out a few chamomile flowers, seeing Keith’s eyes widen impossibly. “Yeah, you’ve mostly seen them… I don’t actually know where you could see them, but you definitely drank chamomile tea sometime in your life, I’m sure. Everyone did, it’s a pretty good drink,” Lance kept on talking while grabbing Keith’s hands and gently brushing his own fingers over his boyfriend’s knuckles, right before helping him make yet another flower crown. This one was meant for Keith, because Lance thought in his head that it would look absolutely perfect on him. Actually, the further they went to the process of making this crown, the more Lance realized that his decision was definitely right. “You’re getting pretty good at it! But, Keith, no— you gotta be a little more gentle. I know you have to hold your tattoo gun tight, but this is different. Look, you have to gently wrap this stem around the other one— yes! That’s perfect, Keith!” He kept reassuring his boyfriend, who actually got rather confident with his own flower crown making skills, which was amazing for Lance, who was (only a little bit, but still) doubting whether his date idea was good or not.

“Wow,” Keith whispered when he could finally gold the finished crown in his hands. He looked like he was  _ cradling  _ his first ever baby, which actually was a pretty similar experience, Lance could know that only from looking at Keith’s face. “How the hell does that even happen, huh, Lance?” He asked, looking him in the eyes and trying to understand  _ anything.  _ It was still some kind of black magic and he could  _ not  _ just simply believe that he did something like this with  _ his own  _ hands. Well, with some help from Lance, but still.

“I told you, it’s easy!” Lance smiled brightly at his boyfriend and then quickly grabbed the phone he’d placed by his side a few minutes ago. “Now, hold still and let Romelle set the crown on your head, and then don’t move, ‘cause we’ll be taking a picture!”

Lance held his phone in front of himself and waited for Keith to be completely ready to do everything. He could  _ not  _ stop staring and admiring how  _ fucking adorable  _ his boyfriend was. He was sitting and looking straight forward, letting Rmelle tangle his hair around the crown to make it stay still on his head. She was doing similar tricks as those Lance had done on  _ her  _ hair, but it was a lot harder with Keith, since his hair was a good few inches shorter than Romelle’s. It took her a few minutes filled with soft cursing (if it could even  _ be  _ soft, somehow) and laughing while she kept messing up  _ everything. _ Lance was yelling at her, but deep inside, he was having a lot of fun watching his friend like that.

“Are you ready or not?” Lance finally asked, slowly getting bored with waiting. Everyone would, though it was still rather nice to watch his boyfriend enjoy their meeting like that. He stared at him for one more minute, then Keith nodded and let Romelle give him a proper  _ pose,  _ though he insisted it wasn’t necessary at all. She happened to know better, so after a moment he was all set and ready for his photoshoot. “Okay, now don’t move!” Lance repeated and crawled back a few feet, so he could have a better view on Keith and a good angle to take a picture.

Keith was desperately trying not to laugh, but soon he realized it was going to be a lot harder than he’d thought at first. Lance was  _ cute  _ as hell trying to focus on his phone in order to take the most  _ perfect  _ photo ever and he was  _ fucking sticking his tongue out.  _ Keith had no idea what his boyfriend was doing, but after a minute he knew he wasn’t going to be able to stop his laughter. And he did, of course, he started smiling like crazy, but Lance wasn’t really saying anything, so Keith assumed that it was fine. He was  _ not  _ going to let his insecurities take over him, so he just stayed that way and decided he was just simply going to have fun.

“We’re done!” Lance crawled back to Keith and waited until Romelle bent down and looked at the phone. “You  _ won this,  _ no offence, Romelle, but just  _ look at those!”  _ He almost shoved his phone right into his friend’s face. She hummed in approval, smiling widely as she saw  _ perfectly cute  _ faces Keith was making when Lance was photographing him. “Okay, now we’re gonna post them, is that okay?”

Keith could only nod and cling to Lance’s arm, looking at him exactly the same way as Shiro looked at Adam. He could  _ never, never ever in his whole life  _ assume he would end up like this, but it was Lance and Keith  _ loved  _ Lance, so he was absolutely willing to accept it  _ without asking even a single question.  _ It was perfect and Keith was hoping it would stay like that for his whole life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR READING EVERYONE!!!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> you can catch me on tumblr @loverboy-spritz or twitter @spritzerrrr (old acc @loverboyspritz is now down and i dunno if i sill havw it back, but don't worry!!)
> 
> hope you enjoyed the chapter!  
> remember that feedback is appreciated very much  
> also i love each and every one of gou, remember that you are all incredibly important!!!


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